• The New York Times, Wednesday, December 6, 2006 10:30 AM

In a move that's long overdue, MySpace is taking action against the sex offenders that use its site. In response to widespread criticism, News Corp., the site's owner, says that within 30 days it will deploy a new technology that will identify sex offenders by their name, date of birth, height, weight and ZIP code.

The automated system searches for a potential match between MySpace's user base and a list of 550,000 state-registered perpetrators, then MySpace employees try to verify the matches and weed out false positives. Once offenders are found, MySpace will block them from the site and, depending on the circumstances, turned them over to local authorities. However, the system only works if offenders upload accurate information about themselves.

The press has hammered the media conglomerate for the ease with which reporters have been able to find sex offenders on the site. News Corp. has even been sued several times by the families of sex-crime victims for facilitating communication between perpetrators and children. Several weeks ago, a Wired magazine reporter actually compiled a database of MySpace members with a sex offense record. Ernie Allen, President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the move is "not a panacea, but it makes a whole lot of sense."

Read the whole story at The New York Times »