MySpace revealed today that they removed 90,000 registered sex offenders from the site over the past two years. But it's not like that can stop them from using social networking sites -- and where to go next? How about the social networking site that has profiles of everyone and their mothers: Facebook.
John Cardillo, a former NYC cop has the job of helping MySpace, Bebo and others identify sex offenders. One article says Cardillo calls Facebook a safe haven for these preverts. With an initial search, he's already found close to 8500 registered sex offenders on Facebook.
Facebook was not pleased with these accusations, and the above-cited article has already been updated twice with their responses:
"We have devoted significant resources to developing innovative and complex systems to proactively monitor the site and its users, including those not on a sex offender registry, for suspicious activity (such as contacting minors or users of predominantly one gender).
We also have established a large team of professional investigators to evaluate any reports of potential abuse, including those surfaced by our systems or from our users. We have been working proactively with states’ attorneys general to run their lists of registered sex offenders against our user base. Our team uses various internal tools to automatically find matches. Any potential matches are evaluated more fully by our internal team of investigation professionals.
If we find that someone on a sex offender registry is a likely match to a user on Facebook, we notify law enforcement and disable the account. In some cases, law enforcement has asked us to leave the accounts active so that they may investigate the user further."
Still, new parents might want to think twice before posting those baby and toddler pictures as viewable to the general public.
Related:
MySpace: Over, Sam and Lilo: Not
Blogger Reveals Facebook is 64% Female; Experience Reveals MySpace is 95% Jackasses
How Not to Use the Internet After Committing a Crime