Predators on MySpace - Scary Statistics

Last week 29,000 sex offenders were identified and their accounts and pages removed from MySpace. That's a truly chilling statistic. Officials say that the same kind of weeding out process is now being used on Facebook. Couldn't have happened soon enough as far as I'm concerned. Experts say that just removing these people is, of course, not enough and that it takes the continuing cooperation of police, lawmakers, schools, parents, teens and the sites to keep kids safe online. For more information on what's being done and tools parents can use, see A Multi-Front Battle Against Web Predators on the Washington Post site (you will have to register, but it is free.)

Comments

[Diane Kendall]

Sammy,

While you are right that it is just a tiny percentage (and you can see what I've had to say more recently on the subject that agrees with you at Time to Stop Looking for the Boogeyman? at http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/parenting_with_technology/article.shtml?ID=46 ),you have to agree as a parent that it still is rather chilling to think about 29,000 known sex offenders being on MySpace . If even one poor kid who is looking for love in all the wrong places happens on one of those page, it is still one too many.

PS Regardless of the statistics, parents still need to keep open lines of communication with their kids about their online life.

[Sammy]

That number, if even true (and probably overstated) is not as chilling as you make it out to be. 29,000 pages out of 200 MILLION total Myspace pages is a very scant 0.0145%. You have more chance of being hit by lightning - twice - than having your child contacted, let alone abducted, from a Myspace predator.