Parents, Politicians Seek Safety Net for Social Networking Websites

April 8, 2007 — -- Friendster, MySpace, Facebook -- they are some of the wildly popular social networking Web sites among teens and young adults.

MySpace alone has more than 160 million profiles, but police and parents worry these sites can make children easy online prey for pedophiles.

Most kids are chatting away on the Internet all day long -- at school, on their mobile phones, at home. But not at Robin Katz's house.

MySpace is banned.

It all started two years ago when her son Justin, then 14, received an inappropriate message and pictures from a grown man.

"Kids think nothing can happen to them," said Katz. "And my kids thought that nothing bad would ever happen to them -- that as long as they were following the rules that nothing would happen to them. And it did."

Not every parent is ready to pull the plug on the computer, so one attorney general is proposing new legislation.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is pushing a bill that would force social networking sites to find a way to verify the ages of every user -- and then get permission from parents of users under 18 years old.

"Connecticut's law could be the model and create a lot of momentum all around the country," said Blumenthal. "I think parents across the nation are concerned about what their children are doing on these sites."

Some of the sites are policing themselves already. MySpace for example, says it's stepping up security measures -- screening for sex offenders and scouring the site for inappropriate material.

But company officials also say verifying the ages of all of its more than 100 million users is technically impossible.

In a statement, the company said: "Attorney General Blumenthal's proposal, while well intentioned, is not the answer."

Other critics say there is no technical fix for what is essentially a cultural and social problem.

Robin Katz agrees that parental oversight is key. But she says, given the difficulties of raising kids in a media-saturated age, she'll take whatever help the government is willing to give.