Attorneys general from eight states want MySpace to turn over the names of potentially thousands of registered sex offenders who may be members of its popular social networking site. In a May 14 letter to MySpace, the attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania said they are "gravely concerned" that sexual predators are using the Web site to lure children to meet them offline. They asked MySpace to tell them how many registered sex offenders they"ve identified on the site and what the company is doing to remove them.
The officials also want to know what MySpace has done to alert its users who have communicated with the sex offenders as well as what the company has done to alert law enforcement. They gave MySpace until May 29 to respond. The attorneys general said they believe that data from Sentinel Tech Holdings, a company working with MySpace to identify sex offenders, indicates that thousands of sex offenders are MySpace members. "MySpace is a treasure-trove of potential victims for child predators," said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. "Sex offenders have no business being on this site, and we believe MySpace has a responsibility to get them off the site."