It had all the red flags: A Web site with 110 million active users, many of whom are teenagers eager to socialize. The teens freely offer details about their lives and share candid images of times with family and friends. hey were easy pickings for child predators. Not so fast. Several states’ attorney generals, including Ohio’s Marc Dann, last year pushed MySpace.com to crack down and police users. (more…)

More than seven months after Attorney General Marc Dann browbeat MySpace.com into providing the names of 470 convicted Ohio sex offenders who were registered with the social-networking Web site, the list has gotten scant attention from authorities around much of central Ohio. Sheriffs in Delaware, Fairfield and Pickaway counties said they received no information about MySpace users in their jurisdictions who were on the statewide sex-offender registry. Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen said he thought Dann’s office would scour the list; a Dann aide said that responsibility belongs to sheriffs. (more…)

MySpace users have been warned to be on their guard against cyber-criminals who used the social networking site to try to spread a malicious ‘Trojan Horse’ program. Trojans are disguised as useful software but when downloaded they allow hackers to hijack your computer or access your passwords. Security sofware firm McAfee says it discovered that scammers hacked a MySpace profile to trick victims into downloading one of these malicious programs. It works by attackers sending new ‘friend requests’ to MySpace users. (more…)

In an agreement entered into by MySpace and the attorneys general from 49 states this past Monday, MySpace agreed to providing better management of what underage users are allowed to do on the popular social networking site. Brian Milburn, founder and CEO of Solid Oak Software, thinks the whole agreement is “smoke and mirrors.” Solid Oak has published CYBERsitter, a well known and popular Internet filtering program, for 13 years. “We have been involved in Internet content management for kids since the Internet as we know it began,” says Milburn.

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A report released by Hitwise yesterday revealed that MySpace received 72 percent of the United States’ overall Web traffic from the 10 largest social networks in December 2007. But Facebook, which came in second with 16 percent, remains the fastest-growing social network. The report measured the market share of social networking sites by calculating how many “visits” they received in December 2007 compared to the year before. A visit is defined as Web traffic directed at a domain or category of a social networking site. Falling into third and fourth were Bebo and BlackPlanet, which both received around 1 percent.

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A new agreement may make it tougher for sexual predators to target children on MySpace. The agreement between 49 states and the social networking site calls for the site to ban 14-year-olds from accessing it. It also adds security features for teens 18 and under. “This is a wake up call for parents. This is not a solution to the problem,” Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said.
The site also now allows parents to remove their child’s profile on the site if they don’t want them to use it. Attorney General Hood has advice for parents of young children.

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MySpace, the country’s largest social-networking Web site, has agreed with attorneys general of 49 states to take new steps to protect children from sexual predators on its site. It also agreed to lead a nationwide effort to develop technology to verify the ages and identities of Internet users, officials announced Monday.

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MySpace led to Jail Space for a Winter Haven man accused of armed robbery. Stephen Gardner Jr., 20, of 200 36th St. NW, is being held in the Polk County Jail without bail. According to arrest documents, he goes by the alias of “Stunt.” Winter Haven police say that without a photo of Gardner downloaded from MySpace, he would still be in free space. (more…)

San Francisco - A jilted girlfriend tried to hire a hitman to kill her boyfriend's new love in Arizona after spotting her rival's picture on his MySpace social networking web page, police said on Thursday.

MOUNTAIN HOME -- Baxter County sheriff's investigators followed an easy path to a juvenile suspected of stealing street signs when the youth posted a picture of some of the signs on his MySpace page.