• PC World
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Stepping up efforts to keep sex offenders off MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site has partnered with an online identity and background verification company to build a national sex offender database in the United States, and will dedicate staff to checking the database against MySpace profiles.

Sentinel Tech Holding will build a searchable database containing information on sex offenders in the United States who are registered with various federal and state law enforcement agencies. The database will be updated frequently and will include details such as name, age, physical appearance, and distinguishing features (tattoos and scars, for example).

MySpace staff will constantly monitor the site for profiles submitted by sex offenders who are on the list. Staffers will remove any matching profiles that they find.

More Restrictions Wanted

MySpace has been lobbying for new legislation to help it take the program a step further. The company wants a law that requires sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses in a national sex-offender database. The law would stipulate that using an unregistered e-mail address constitutes a parole or probation violation, forcing offenders back to jail. If such a law were passed, MySpace would find it easier to identify sex offenders who have profiles on its site, the company said.

Some observers have criticized MySpace for permitting profiles by registered sex offenders. Earlier this year, journalists around the country began cross-checking sex-offender databases against MySpace profiles, finding matches, and publicizing their results. MySpace responded by hiring a chief security officer to oversee safety and law enforcement affairs and by introducing an advertising campaign to promote online safety.

MySpace still faces some thorny issues. For example, most sex offenders aren't legally prohibited from creating a MySpace page, so it's unclear whether MySpace will trigger a backlash over its policy of removing certain profiles.