New York Attorney General Threatens To Sue Social Networking Site for Allegedly Hosting Child Porn

June 10, 2010 — -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced today that he will sue Tagged.com after numerous obscene pictures of underage children were found posted on the popular social networking site.

"This is one of the worst social networking sites that we've encountered," said Andrew Cuomo during an afternoon press conference at his office in lower Manhattan. "Clean up your act or we will see you in court immediately."

Cuomo alleged that Tagged, which was initially targeted at high school students but is now open to users of any age, failed to protect children from exposure to graphic child porn images. Cuomo said that despite claims on the web site that it is dedicated to children's safety and responds to complaints, Tagged did not respond to notifications of inappropriate content. Said Cuomo, "Despite the safety claims listed on its very own Web site, Tagged.com repeatedly looks the other way when sexually explicit material is sent to its underage users,"

During a three-month undercover investigation, investigators from Cuomo's office determined that Tagged had "significant" lapses in responding to user complaints about sexual content involving children. According to investigators, posted material included "graphic images of children being sexually abused, inappropriate sexual communications between adults and minors, and content that advocates pedophilia."

According to Cuomo's office, Tagged did not act after being notified by undercover investigators on April 17 of a user profile that included a slideshow showing children in sexually explicit poses. Tagged also allegedly failed to act after being told of images of a girl who appeared to be under 10 years of age engaged in bestiality. Investigators said they found 29 user profiles on Tagged that included images of children being sexually abused, and that adults on Tagged routinely engage in inappropriate communications with minors.

In December, Cuomo announced that his office was teaming up with social networking giants, including AOL, Google, and Yahoo, to identify the sex offenders lurking on their sites and take them offline.