That new random friend you met on MySpace might not be who he or she says it is.
A recent investigation has found that registered sexual predators are visibly present on the popular social networking Web site.
Wired News entered the names of almost 400,000 registered sex offenders into a code search of MySpace.com’s more than 120 million profiles, and found that more than 700 of them are also registered users of the social networking site.
The investigation, which searched for the names of sex offenders in 46 states, confirmed this month that at least 744 currently have MySpace profiles after analyzing only a third of its data. And many of those, the report also states, are still actively pursuing victims.
Many students are aware of the presence of online predators on MySpace, and say they are usually careful to watch what they put on their profiles and who they interact with on the Web site.
University junior Aubrey Cambra said she gets about one to two friend requests or messages every day from random people she doesn’t know.
“I’ve found some really sexual ones,” Cambra said, adding that she also gets messages from strangers asking for her name, e-mail address or phone number.
When users first register for a MySpace account, the information posted in their profiles is visible to any of the 120 million-plus current users on the Web site. This summer, however, MySpace gave users the option of changing the settings so that their profiles are only visible to their friends on the network.
There are also inherent limitations on young people’s profiles. Anyone under the age of 14 must have a limited profile that only friends can view.
Cambra said some of her college friends that use MySpace have registered themselves as young teens in the past to prevent strangers from being able to look at their profiles before the recent privacy changes took effect.
University junior Sara Parker said she has been careful with friend requests since she began using the Web site as a freshman.
“I don’t accept people I don’t know for my own safety,” she said.
The Eugene Police Department has used MySpace as a resource for tracking down sexual predators, Sergeant Kathy Flynn said.
Though Flynn said EPD can’t use online conversations with potential victims as direct evidence toward a conviction, it can use the interactions as a “tool” for gathering information about a suspect.
“If there’s an indication that there’s something out there, then certainly we’re going to look at that as part of the investigation,” Flynn said.
Flynn said each case is dealt with differently, and much more than contact made on the social networking is needed to prosecute through the District Attorney’s office.
“Conversation on MySpace isn’t going to be enough to establish that there was a crime,” she said.
Flynn said EPD only began using MySpace as a tool for investigation within the last year.
“I think it’s one of those cases where technology is ahead of the law,” she said. “We’re just starting to see it used and being useful.”
Cambra and Parker both said they feel safer using Facebook, which has less than a tenth of the users MySpace does and is still mostly made up of college and high school students on separate networks.
Anyone can register for MySpace, so long as they have an e-mail address.
“It’s getting so big now,” Cambra said. “Now you can get so much closer into someone’s life than you ever could.”
And though many of her male friends also get friend requests from people they don’t know, she said, she still feels more at risk to online predators.
“It’s more likely it will happen to a girl,” Cambra said.
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