MySpace takes precautions against predators

In the wake of a series of negative articles and increasingly nervous parents, My Space is taking precautions against Internet predators by introducing new security measures.

The new rules are meant to prevent adults 18 and over from requesting to be on a younger person’s friend list unless they already know the youth’s full name or email address.

While the move is nice in theory, it’s a tad useless, in my opinion, because the site doesn’t have any way of verifying the real age of the user when they’re registering. I just registered successfully as a 16-year-old and I’m 54.

I don’t know if there is much My Space can do to solve the problem of Internet predators and false identities unless they agree to use authentication of all their users. Bringing all the MySpace millions of users ‘inside’ would be difficult if not impossible, but my hope is that a new, safer environment for teens and young adults will eventually take on MySpace. Such a new social environment could be a very popular place if parents were satisfied that all the users were authenticated. I know I would be.