MySpace age problems

Given that MySpace is another community in which adults and children can come into contact with each other under various cloaks of anonymity, I thought this might be relevant. The BBC are reporting attempts by MySpace to restrict the interaction between teens and adults http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5101942.stm

As often the case the headline sounds exciting, 'MySpace tightens age restrictions' but the reality is to be found deeper in the article... 'At the moment MySpace has no way of verifying the age of users.' By the sound of it they don't plan to introduce any.

Amidst all the "special reports" on news channels regarding sexual predators on MySpace I did some sleuthing with a friend of mine.

Know what? .. its not hard to find people on there not of age to be listing their profiles in public. So much of a disparity I'd say a sexual predator doesn't really have to TRY on MySpace.

Just crank the "From" and "To" age search fields to 69 to 100. BANG, hundreds of people all lying quite obviously about their age ... some of which are below the 16+ cut off for allowing public profiles. (If you say you're under 16 you can't have a public profile .. it is by invitation only - so LIE, and you're golden.)

My friend even found some profiles of people 16 and under with obviously borderline sexual-leaning/seductive pictures posted. Nothing nude, or obviously illegal ... but alot of younger users with pictures of seductive food eating (bananas, lollipops) or scantily clad (TONS of bikini shots) with captions that would make their parents rip down their MySpace accounts and force the "sex talk" on them. One picture in particular was a girl that identified herself at 16 wearing a very small "Halloween Costume" (although the date stamped on the picture by the digital camera was within the last couple months - go figure) with strawberries all over it and the caption was something about "eating her" that I wouldn't want posted under a 16 year olds picture.

We reported ALL kinds of abuses and he went back to check and said that almost all of the profiles are still up there ... and new ones crop up every day. I think he is writing a paper on it for one of his courses.

If someone wants to lie ... and there isn't a way to fundamentally check to verify them, then they'll get away with it. Pure and simple. The internet is just too large and anonymous to allow a virtual honor system.

I guess the buzz about MySpace in that regard hasn't really hit the UK yet. But if a site of that size, profile and value can't or won't come up with any kind of age verification what hope is there for SL? MySpace requires significantly more effort to set up than the one or two clicks that seem to be envisaged for ideal SL sign up. It seems to me that LLs model for SL is much closer to Real Player - "Need to view this 3D product / salesroom / movie promotion? Click here to dwnload the 'client'" and as a side effect you get an account in this alternative universe!

I have 'Space Age' problems.... I crashed my UFO on this godforsaken planet and I'll be damned if I can get a call-out service to patch it up. At the rate the natives are stealing parts there won't be much of it left soon.

Have you tried the Area51 Saucer Repair Shop?

This belongs in the sand box, no real relation to SL

I thought that these forums were full of discussions about the age verification issue? So the fact that MySpace has the same problem seemed something we could discuss and might have value. I for one never check the sandbox discussions as I'm only interested in things of relevance to SL. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how closely related to SL something has to be?

You don't think it has any relation to SL? Just wait until SL gets sued like myspace is being sued. It is the same basic problem protecting under 18 yr old users from preditors. Myspace may be big enough to survive a few million $ lawsuits. Can LL?

Nvm.