RICHMOND - Web sites such as MySpace are safer than they used to be, thanks in part to an agreement reached earlier this year with the attorneys general of 49 states, but safeguards aren't perfect, so watch out for yourself.
That was the verdict of expert witnesses, so to speak, at a public seminar Wednesday at the University of Richmond School of Law.
Taking part were Rick Klau, who went from the Web site FeedBurner to strategic partner development at Google; Rick Lane, vice president and spokesman for News Corp., which owns MySpace; Ann Bartow, a law professor at the University of South Carolina; and Gene Fishel, chief of the computer crime section in the Virginia attorney general's office.
Safety elements at MySpace include reviewing discussion group topics, removing MySpace accounts of anyone registered as a sex offender, enforcing minimum age requirements and cooperating with law enforcement through a 24-hour, seven-day hot line.
Every image and video posted on MySpace is seen by a human eye before it's posted, Lane said. As a result, a recent harassment video shot in Florida never made it onto MySpace because it was reviewed and blocked, he said.
Dealing with text bullying takes some different tools, he said. Every page has a button to report abusive comments, he said. MySpace users also can block messages. When his own niece started getting mean comments on her page, she used the tools and it stopped, he said.
Verifying ages of online users may be more difficult, Klau pointed out.
Some of the challenges are technical, because every verification site has a different interface that programmers must accommodate. Another challenge is the expense of getting the information when a site like MySpace has 210 million users. "What if MySpace had to pay $1 per user [to verify the age]? That's a lot of money." Available data may not be completely accurate, either.
Bartow had concerns about the difficulty of dealing with pornography online. Social networking sites have become popular ways to distribute amateur porn, she said. In many cases, the subject of the video may be unaware that it's posted. Once it's online, it's difficult to remove.
Klau urged parents to educate themselves and their children.
"Make sure that you understand what is and is not possible online. . . . You do not want to outsource this responsibility.
Katherine Calos is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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