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Jul 25, 2007 12:17 am US/Central
Thousands Of Offenders Caught On MySpace, 39 In MN
by Esme Murphy
(WCCO)
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After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests. (File)
CBS
In the past two months, MySpace.com has caught four times as many sex offenders with Internet profiles than previously reported. More than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on the popular social networking Web site, according to officials in North Carolina.
According to the Minnesota Attorney General, at least 39 of those offenders have a Minnesota connection.
After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.
At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson sued to get MySpace to give up the names of Minnesota predators. She suspects the number of offenders online is much higher.
"There can be many, many more and I expect there are who are using MySpace.com or other sites under a fake identity," said Swanson.
While many teens say they are not worried, consider the case of Ron Abshire, a convicted rapist from Inver Grove Heights who, in May, went back to prison after meeting a 15-year-old girl on MySpace and having sex with her.
However, just because a sexual predator is using MySpace, it doesn't mean something can be done in every case. If an offender is no longer on probation it is perfectly legal for him to use the site.
The only time authorities can act is if an offender is still on probation and barred from using the Internet.
A spokesman for the Department of Corrections said it is aggressively investigating all 39 names to see if any action can be taken against them.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
