MySpace Tightens Security After Lawsuit

Posted on June 21, 2006

MySpace.com is implementing some additional security measures on its tremendously popular social networking site. They are limiting the ability of MySpace users aged 18 and over to access information about kids aged 14 and 15. An MSNBC.com article describes the changes MySpace.com is making.

Under the changes, expected to be announced Wednesday and taking effect next week, MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name.
Any user will still be able to get a partial profile of younger users by searching for other attributes, such as display name. The difference is that currently, adults can then request to be added to a youth's list to view the full profile; that option will disappear for adults registered as 18 and over.
However, users under 18 can still make such contact, and MySpace has no mechanism for verifying that users submit their true age when registering. That means adults can sign up as teens and request to join a 14-year-old's list of friends, which would enable the full profiles.
The partial profiles display gender, age and city. Full profiles describe hobbies, schools and any other personal details a user may provide.

The changes follow a lawsuit against MySpace for its lack of security. The most difficult problem is how will they determine whether or not someone adding a MySpace profile is the age they claim to be? It is a complex problem MySpace and any other web service that offers open registration has faced since the Internet began. Social networks like Imbee are trying to take advantage of MySpace's problems by offering more secure blogging and social networking tools for kids.