MySpace: the dangers of cyberspace

New age restrictions on MySpace.com provide a fragment of the real security measures needed to make this and other social-networking Web sites safe from sexual predators.

MySpace users age 18 and over will no longer be able to communicate easily with underage users. They will not be able to request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. After several highly publicized incidents of sexual predators using MySpace to find victims, it would seem the Web site is responding to calls to beef up security.

Not exactly. My-Space's move is almost laughably naive. It relies on honesty in an arena where most users are dishonest to some degree. MySpace has no mechanism for verifying that users submit their true age when registering.

Users of social-networking sites embellish their attributes, lie about their age and employ a host of other subterfuges. The ones most likely to be honest are the potential victims: underage users who post detailed information, from the name of their school to their home addresses.

MySpace's widespread popularity — 87 million users, about a quarter registered as minors — makes it ground zero in the battle waged by parents, schools and law-enforcement officials to make the Internet safer for young people. It is a good bet that whatever MySpace does will be followed by similar Web sites (such as Xanga.com and Facebook.com).

If that's the case, MySpace should go back to the drawing board and return with more meaningful security measures.

Recently, a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user sued My-Space and its owner, News Corp., seeking $30 million in damages. Earlier, a 16-year-old girl who tricked her parents into getting her a passport flew to the Mideast to be with a 20-year-old man she met through MySpace.

Greater vigilance by parents plays a role in preventing incidents such as these. But MySpace should not force parents and law enforcement into discouraging young people from using the site. A better and more-profitable compromise is for MySpace to offer the public more thorough and useful measures.