January 14, 2008

            LANSING - In a victory for Internet safety, Attorney General Mike Cox today announced that MySpace has agreed to significant steps to better protect children on its social networking website. The new safety measures include the creation of a broad-based task force to explore and develop age and identity verification technology.

            "Today's announcement is a major step in the right direction by MySpace to help protect children online," said Cox. "Too many youngsters still are preyed upon by Internet predators. These changes will help safeguard more children online."

            Other specific changes and policies that MySpace agreed to develop include:

• Allowing parents to submit their children's emails so MySpace can prevent anyone using those emails from setting up profiles;
• Making the default setting "private" for profiles of 16 and 17 year olds;
• Promising to respond within 72 hours to inappropriate content complaints; and,
• Committing more staff and/or resources to review and classify photographs and discussion groups.

            Under the agreement, MySpace, with support from the Attorneys General, will create and lead an Internet Safety Technical Task Force to explore and develop age and identity verification tools for social networking websites. MySpace will invite other social networking sites, age and identify verification experts, child protection groups, and technology companies to participate in the task force.

            The task force will report back to the Attorneys General every three months and issue a formal report with findings and recommendations at the end of 2008.

            MySpace will also hire a contractor to compile a registry of the email addresses provided by parents who want to restrict their child's access to the site. MySpace will bar anyone using a submitted email address from signing in or creating a profile.

            MySpace also agreed to:

• Strengthen software identifying underage users;
• Retain a contractor to better identify and expunge inappropriate images;
• Obtain and constantly update a list of pornographic websites and regularly sever any links between them and MySpace;
• Implement changes making it more difficult for adults to contact children;
• Dedicate meaningful resources to educating children and parents about online safety;
• Review abuse reporting process and to determine whether it should be modified or replaced; and,
• Create a closed "high school" section for users under 18 years old.

            " MySpace has moved in the right direction," continued Cox. "It is important to note that no matter how successful MySpace is from preventing minors from accessing their website and no matter how successful my continued efforts are to arrest predators, parents need to continue to monitor their children's Internet activities and report any suspicious activity to authorities."

            In September, Cox kicked off a statewide effort to educate children and parents about Internet safety. The program, called the Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative (Michigan CSI), has taught nearly 90,000 children across Michigan, with more than 374,000 children signed up through their schools for the program. For more information on Michigan CSI, visit www.michigan.gov/csi.

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