Internet Crimes Against Children Blog: MySpace removes 7000 sexual offenders from Database

All of the 153 MySpace users identified as registered sexual offenders in New Hampshire have been removed from the company’s Web site. MySpace has used the Sentinel SAFE database to remove about 7,000 profiles from its Web site.

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Sentinel SAFE database

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Nashua Telegraph.com

Registered sexual offenders in the state are under scrutiny after the New Hampshire attorney general’s office received information that those offenders had established profiles on MySpace.com.

The information was provided Monday in response to a subpoena from state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte requesting the News Corp. company turn over the names of any MySpace user that its partner company Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. had identified as a registered sexual offender, officials with the attorney general’s office said in a written statement.

All of the 153 MySpace users identified as registered sexual offenders in New Hampshire have been removed from the company’s Web site, and officials with the attorney general’s office have passed their names to officials at the state’s Department of Corrections, the statement said.

“The probation and parole department has been asked to determine if any of the individuals identified by MySpace have violated any of the terms of their probation or parole,” the statement said.

“It is expected that any such violations will be brought to the attention of the prosecutor for whatever further criminal actions that can be taken.”

Officials at the office were not available Monday to provide further information about the 153 people the company identified as sexual offenders. According to the New Hampshire State Police Web site, Nashua has 62 residents registered as offenders against children. Hudson and Merrimack each have 10 residents registered as sexual offenders, and Milford has 14 such residents.

MySpace and Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. began working together in late 2006 to develop the database of U.S. sexual offenders in order to determine if any sexual offenders were using the popular social networking Web site.

Since then, MySpace has used the Sentinel SAFE database to remove about 7,000 profiles from its Web site. MySpace.com has about 180 million profiles. Ayotte was one of eight state attorneys general who subpoenaed MySpace in mid-May demanding the names and addresses of sexual offenders who had established profiles on the popular social networking Web site.

The other attorneys general were from North Carolina, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

MySpace officials were not willing to turn over the information without the subpoenas, claiming that the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act prohibited it from disclosing such user information.

In late May, after a meeting with attorneys general from North Carolina and Connecticut, MySpace attorney Mike Angus said the company was cooperating with the information requests.

“We hope to get requests from every state,” Angus said.

“From day one, we have preserved all the information in the hopes of getting these requests.”