MySpace's privacy upgrades

MySpace users – regardless of age – will be able to make their profiles private, Reuters reported. “Members over 18 years old [will] have to know the email or first and last name of any 14- to 15-year-old member whom they want to contact,” according to Reuters, or rather 14- and 15-year-olds who register as being of those ages. There is no age verification in place on social-networking sites, because – though the technology exists – there is no national-level information on US minors for age-verification technology to check (e.g., adults’ drivers licenses and financial info), I learned this week at a conference on social-networking policy held in Washington, D.C., by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. According to the New York Times, MySpace “will also stop showing advertisements for certain products — like online dating sites — to those under 18.” At the NCMEC conference, MySpace also said that soon, probably within weeks, its users of all ages will also have the option to go completely private and unsearchable. We at NetFamilyNews, BlogSafety.com, and SafeKids.com see this as a double-edged sword – privacy is usually a good thing on the social networks, but it would be hard for parents to find and check in on a child’s completely private profile. That can be a downside for parents, schools, and law enforcement people who monitor MySpace to protect kids and others (see “Shooting rampage avoided due to MySpace posting” in ArsTechnica.com).