I have many issues re: Mr. Granneman's article re: MySpace, however, I do have to publicly respond to one statement in particular.

Mr. Granneman writes that: "There is no way for MySpace to verify a user's age, so we're right back to the specter of a predator claiming to be 14 so that he can more easily target other teens."

I beg to differ. I have done an exhaustive review of MySpace pages and profiles and I truly believe that MySpace can do a much better job of winnowing out those who are lying about their ages. There are some pretty tip offs that someone is lying: how about when someone lists their age as 99, and then you look at the profile and see only photos of children who are quite obviously in their early teens? I'm sure you question the term "Quite obviously." How can a MySpace profile "quite obviously" belong to someone too young? Further evidence of someone's youth: yearbooks in the background of their pictures with town names/dates on them, postings which detail their schools, 8th grade field trip photos and plans, birthday party details, for example. Most kids between 11-13 aren't so conscientious that they're checking the background on their photos. I read the profile of one young lady who reported her age as 19...but in reading her profile in further depth, she announced that she was a student at a Middle School.

Other examples of "incriminating evidence" I discovered while viewing MySpace profiles: photos of kids with sport shirts with their jr. high school names emblazoned on them; bulletins announcing games/team wins or losses that clearly state that the school is elementary or middle level and one young man even posted his age as 15, but in a bulletin post talked at length about his recent bar mitzvah.

In my opinion, if MySpace truly wished to responsibly enforce their own rules and regulations (as they frequently state in the media that they do), then they have to take into account "suspicious profiles." Much as the police can investigate based on "reasonable cause" I believe MySpace should also have such ability.

It is my contention that every new profile posting should be subject to review, and subsequent, random reviews and if found to be suspicious in any way, MySpace should delete, or at the very least suspend the profile pending proof of age..MySpace should look very closely at that person's friends list. One preteen MySpace user who posted his age as 16 was really 12...nearly all of his friends turned out to be between 11 and 15.

While the courts rule, and even I have to admit, that MySpace is not responsible for illegal and dangerous activity on the site, they are responsible for conducting their business in a responsible manner. MySpace is responsible for creating security measures that may actually work. So far, their efforts have been feeble at best, negligent at worst. Perhaps such is the problem of too rapid growth, and insufficient management.

Mr. Granneman's viewpoint is, in my opinion, naive, short sighted, and yet another example of the all too common habit of denied responsibility.


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