Parents To Block Kids From Joining MySpace

Reservoir Hill writes "A New York Times blog notes that attorneys general of 49 states are announcing a partnership with MySpace to fight sexual predators on social networks by letting parents submit the e-mail addresses of their children, so the company can prevent anyone from using that address to set up a profile. MySpace will also set up a 'closed' section for users under age 18 so only their established online friends can visit their pages. MySpace also promises to hire a contractor to identify and delete pornographic images on the site. 'This set of principles is a landmark and milestone because it involves an acknowledgment of the importance of age and identity authentication,' said Connecticut attorney General Richard Blumenthal." Blumenthal also actually said "If we can put a man on the moon..."

Blocking email addresses?

[Kelson]

With a half-zillion free email providers out there, blocking a kid's email address will last all of two minutes. All they have to do is create an alias at Gmail, Yahoo, etc.

It reminds me of the early days of Hotmail, when they "verified" that you were a US resident by having you enter a matching city and ZIP code. Which just meant that all their overseas users lived in Beverly Hills, 90210.

Re:Only 49 states?

[BeanThere]

Seemingly Texas [chron.com]. (Saying 'agreement to protect young users against sexual predators doesn't go far enough')

Re:Only 49 states?

[JavaManJim]

Yes its Texas. For sometimes good reasons and more often bad ones (as in the Microsoft monopoly case). This time its a good reason. The attorney general says the agreement did not go far enough about verifying ages. I don't know how an any age verification would work. Factual data like emails or birth dates can be easily faked. Perhaps name the continents? No, that would knock out a lot of college students today. Thumbprints? DNA samples anyone?
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080114_mo_myspacetx.21af3d6b.html [wfaa.com]

Jim