MySpace paedophiles' info forced over
Pressure from the media and US attorneys general led to MySpace’s hand over of paedophile information last month experts claim.MySpace originally resisted giving out data on the apparent 7,000 paedophiles that operate on its site claiming due process of law had not been carried out properly.
Director for the centre of IT and law, University of Bristol, Andrew Charlesworth said: “The problem with this is that there is a legal procedure, which the US attorney generals are perfectly capable of following for obtaining that information and the question is, why they chose not to use that.”
As reported by the Register, the attorney generals of eight states wrote in a letter to MySpace: "We remain concerned about the design of your site, the failure to require parental permission, and the lack of safeguards necessary to protect our children."
After agreeing last month to give out the data MySpace sought legal advice to ensure it complied with data protection laws.
Co-creator of MySpace Jason Feffer said: “MySpace did a tremendous amount to protect its users on the site and worked diligently with the attorney generals of several states, federal authorities and non-government agencies.
“I believe that we had the best methods for safeguarding minors and tried to explain this to the attorney general of a certain state that refused to believe or accept our methods.
“It felt very awkward to have to see our conversations exposed in the media instead of dealing with them directly in private sessions. I didn't see the benefit to the public in having the media involved in that fashion.”
Click above to listen to Andrew Charlesworth's impression