Seen at CNN:
Popular Internet social network MySpace said on Monday it reached an accord with eight U.S. state attorneys general and has worked out a legal mechanism to hand over information on convicted sex offenders found on its service.[...]
MySpace and the attorneys general group, led by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and North Carolina AG Roy Cooper, have worked out a system to hand over information to be used to pursue offenders, although that process could differ from state to state.[...]
Blumenthal said he has been issued a subpoena for the information. “Our subpoena compels this information right away — within hours not weeks, without delay — because it is vital to protecting children,” he said in a statement. “Social networking sites should not be playgrounds for predators.”
and privacy laws are apparently being mostly-preserved in the process, for which MySpace still deserves credit for taking the high ground for.
Blumenthal’s statement still irritates a sore spot I have when it comes to the treatment of sex offenders — if these folks are a danger to society, why are they free enough to have (for example) apparent unfettered access to a computer?