Myspace Leads Feds To Sex Offenders

[The Big PINK One♥]

CONCORD - For months, headlines have spelled out how sexual predators have used the popular social-networking site MySpace.com to lure children and teens into situations leading to assault and abuse.

Now the Web site, which boasts more than 180 million users worldwide, is taking the first step in ferreting out some of those same predators.

New Hampshire is among more than a dozen states that recently issued subpoenas to the company asking for the profile information of registered sex offenders.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said the information will be used to determine if New Hampshire's sex offenders have in some way violated terms of their parole or probation with their account. Some offenders may be barred from using a computer. Others could be simply restricted from having any contact with youths.

Ayotte said her office has yet to find out how many local sex offenders may have had profiles among the 7,000 identified and removed by MySpace. She said the information could be available as early as next week.

A group of attorneys general have spent more than a year focusing on their concerns that sexual predators can easily use MySpace to target children.

The minimum age requirement for using MySpace is 14, but it's impossible to enforce because there's no way to determine whether users are lying about their age and other parts of their identity, according to Ayotte.

"The issue really is getting MySpace to improve its practices," Ayotte said. "I know from my own experience of talking to children that there are kids younger than 14 who are using that site."

Too much information?

MySpace is viewed as the industry leader among social networking sites, which makes them influential among competitors.

"They're the biggest, so they set the standard," Ayotte said. "If they make improvements, then others will follow."

Legal experts and defense lawyers said the move by law enforcement to search for offenders on MySpace comes as little surprise.

"My gut feeling is that if you're putting something on MySpace, you're putting it out there for the whole world to see," said Chuck Temple, director of the criminal practice clinic at Franklin Pierce Law Center.

"Whether you're a sex offender or not, people will put things on MySpace that are incriminating," Temple said.




He recalled his own venture onto the site, when he viewed profiles of his children's friends that led him to one site where a group of 15-year-olds were smoking marijuana.

"How personal they get is an open invitation," he added. "The root of the problem is parents. You need to get on your child's MySpace account and see what they've posted, and some may need to have some difficult conversations with them."

Such public writings and photos that usually fill MySpace profiles have also been fodder for defense lawyers who represent people accused of sexual assault.

Salem defense lawyer Patrick Donovan said he's handled at least two cases in the last year where material culled from MySpace was used to defend a client.

"The things that some people put on MySpace are remarkable. It's a tool that cuts both ways. Routinely, I go to MySpace when I have a case like that and see what I can find," he said.

"I'm working a case next week where I didn't find any information that was useful. Other times, it's like a gold mine."

Donovan, a former prosecutor with the attorney general's office, said he also advises clients who have been convicted of sexual offenses that MySpace and other online forums are not places they need to be, especially given law enforcement's efforts to find online predators.

Can it hold up in court?

Haverhill defense lawyer Brian Lavallee, who was a New Hampshire prosecutor for more than a decade, said MySpace's response to the subpoena could bring about interesting legal issues if police begin seeking charges against sexual offenders.

Ayotte acknowledged simply having an online profile may not be a violation for all registered sexual offenders, depending upon the type of crime for which they have been convicted.

Lavallee said police bringing charges may not mean they have a cut-and-dry case.

"I would want to see the subpoena and the basis for it," he said. "Was it issued by a judge? What's the process they went through? Are they complying with due process? That's what I would want to know."

The durability of individual cases may not stand up in court, depending on how police go about reviewing profiles, he said.

"If you find some way where that information can be suppressed," Lavallee said, "then it could make a tremendous difference."