• Wired, Tuesday, April 18, 2006 10:36 AM

News Corp. has a real problem if a Wired reporter says she had no trouble matching the names of certain MySpace users to California's online database of registered sex offenders. The reporter simply ran the names of randomly selected sex offenders in San Francisco and Sonoma County through MySpace's user search engine and turned up no fewer than five men whose names, photos, ages, and astrological signs matched those found in the state's sex offender registry. While none of the men appeared to have minors on their list of friends--and assuming the profiles are authentic--it looks as though MySpace faces a monumental task in cleaning up its user base and its public image, which has sustained a hammering by countless media outlets about the noted presence of sex offenders on its site. However, the company has taken several steps forward recently: last week it hired a Microsoft veteran as its new chief security officer. The site already devotes a third of its staff of 300 to customer service and support, but this may prove to be too tall a task for a site that reports an astonishing 270,000 new users each day.

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