MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on the popular social networking Web site — more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago, officials in two states Tuesday.
North Carolina's Roy Cooper is one of several attorneys general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned Web site provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the popular social networking site, along with information about where they live.
After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.
At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.
Cooper's office said Tuesday, however, that now the figure has risen past 29,000.
"I'm absolutely astonished and appalled because the number has grown so exponentially over so short of time with no explanation," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who also had pressed the company earlier for sex offender data.
MySpace declined to comment on the figure, focusing instead on its efforts to clean up its profile rolls.
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 at www.God-101.com
Showing posts with label sex offenders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sex offenders. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Friday, May 04, 2007
Pocket Pool
Here we go again!
A victims' rights group is rightly raising objections to a university research study in which sex offenders will be paid for looking at images of children.
In the joint study, to be conducted by University of Toronto and University of Lethbridge researchers, 250 sex offenders will receive $60 each to view computerized images of fully dressed children.
Responses to the images will be measured to give researchers some insight into pedophilia.
Shawn Howard, spokesperson for the Calgary-based Canadian Justice Foundation, said he just shook his head when he heard that sex offenders will be paid to take part in the study.
"I find it absolutely bizarre that we're even considering funding this," he said. "We already know what sex offenders and pedophiles are capable of. We know the types of images they react to."
Michael Seto, associate psychology professor at the University of Toronto, said the study is an effort to assess risk and to determine more effective treatment.
Offenders who have been convicted of downloading child pornography, but have not abused children, will be compared to offenders who have abused children.
Seto said he is not surprised that the study has generated controversy.
"I do understand why people are concerned about this, but I hope they don't lose sight of the fact that we're doing this research to understand pedophilia and sexual offending," he said.
Seto said it is standard practice to pay people to take part in clinical studies.
The study is being funded with a grant from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, an organization that receives provincial funding.
Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said the province plans to claw back any money that the foundation spends on compensating sex offenders in the study.
"We're inherently uncomfortable with the idea that anyone that is serving time or indeed probation for a matter such as this would benefit in any way related to compensation," he said.
Your "perplexed, bothered and bewildered" scribe;
Allan W Janssen
A victims' rights group is rightly raising objections to a university research study in which sex offenders will be paid for looking at images of children.
In the joint study, to be conducted by University of Toronto and University of Lethbridge researchers, 250 sex offenders will receive $60 each to view computerized images of fully dressed children.
Responses to the images will be measured to give researchers some insight into pedophilia.
Shawn Howard, spokesperson for the Calgary-based Canadian Justice Foundation, said he just shook his head when he heard that sex offenders will be paid to take part in the study.
"I find it absolutely bizarre that we're even considering funding this," he said. "We already know what sex offenders and pedophiles are capable of. We know the types of images they react to."
Michael Seto, associate psychology professor at the University of Toronto, said the study is an effort to assess risk and to determine more effective treatment.
Offenders who have been convicted of downloading child pornography, but have not abused children, will be compared to offenders who have abused children.
Seto said he is not surprised that the study has generated controversy.
"I do understand why people are concerned about this, but I hope they don't lose sight of the fact that we're doing this research to understand pedophilia and sexual offending," he said.
Seto said it is standard practice to pay people to take part in clinical studies.
The study is being funded with a grant from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, an organization that receives provincial funding.
Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said the province plans to claw back any money that the foundation spends on compensating sex offenders in the study.
"We're inherently uncomfortable with the idea that anyone that is serving time or indeed probation for a matter such as this would benefit in any way related to compensation," he said.
Your "perplexed, bothered and bewildered" scribe;
Allan W Janssen
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