"...compelling proof that social networking sites remain ripe with sexual predators."

Whereas the REAL world is totally safe and OK. If I thought for a minute there was a sexual preadator somewhere in the real world, well, then, I might just loose it.

Hi, I'm Chris Hanson. Why don't you log off, have a seat, and read a book.

Gee I'm suprised that Mike Hunt, and Heyood Jablome aren't registered offenders

90,000 / more than 100,000,00 total users = 0.09% of users.

i don't think .09% can be considered "rife".

@igoooorrrr: or "ripe". =p

@269InchDiagonal_GitEmSteveDave: "I thought I was meeting Amber? Where's Amber?"

@skloon: I actually know someone named Mike Hunt.

Oh, Connecticut AG...It should be "rife," not "ripe."

Sorry to nitpick, but what chance do the rest of us have if state agencies can't even use words correctly?

In other myspace related news..

Tom's profile was randomly deleted.. and details are unknown at the moment as to what caused this. :D

I wonder if any innocent members got caught up in it? That's my real question, how effective is this magical new sex-offender seeking technology?

Besides, if the douche CT AG wants to stop sexual predators why doesn't he start arresting them for their crimes? They don't get access to MySpace in lockup, do they?

I have a fairly common name, so I paranoidly logged in to check on my account as soon as I read this. It's nice to know that MySpace is better at checking names than the TSA.

@igoooorrrr: Damn you, I was going to make the exact same post.

If you got your numbers from the same place I got mine (laffo Wikipedia), then the actual percentage is a lot smaller than that since those numbers are 2006 numbers.

"ripe with sexual predators."? Freud much?

AHHHHHHHHH! Not the 25 Things!

I just commented on somebody's. Ha.

25 Things About Me reference makes this the best post ever.

Still no cure for pedo-creeps lurking on flickr, though.

Also, what exactly defines a sexual predator? Are these only the really-bad-level ones? Or did they also count the frat boy who, at age 18, slept with his 17 year old girlfriend, and the parents pressed charges?

So how many false positives do you think there are?

@SalimaLabeo: Or you could read a dictionary: [www.merriam-webster.com]

@Raekwon: They could not you could crap now I fail.

Wait. So MySpace did the right thing, culled their members and then released information regarding this, and some AG is blaming MySpace for this?
Not a fan of online bling (let alone Fox), but they seem to be doing the right thing here, only to be pounced upon by publicity-seeking pols...

@nicemarmot617: I was one of the innocent members that was affected by this ban. So what I'm in my 30s and have a bunch of 15 year old girls on my top 10. The pictures of my van with "Free Candy" painted on the side probably didn't help.

I currently work in education. I cleaned out my profiles on MySpace and Facebook within a month of getting the job, closed them, and haven't looked back.

You think you're safe because you didn't upload that picture of you sipping a Bud Lite? Guess what: your friend took that picture, too. And secretly did upload it. You're still SOL. I'll be damned if these stupid time-wasting, venting websites get me fired.

did they do their search by name? Find it odd that a reg. sex offender would actually use their correct info.

MySpace? What's that?

@Real Cheese Flavor: Though to be fair, this is a situation wherein simple percentage doesn't necessarily correlate to chances of encounter, because encounters aren't random events.

Yes, companies do look at employee's myspaces... but that is why they let you make your profile private. :\

@Trai_Dep: MTE
It's hardly MySpace's fault that these people are out of jail and on the Internet.

@floraposte: Regardless of the percentage, I'm shocked that many sex offenders were out there on my space.

Oh and what's to stop these weirdos from just registering new accounts using fake IPs?

@Meltingemail: IIRC, a statutory rape conviction does make the convicted a sexual predator.

@floraposte:

That's true. I was objecting to the quote's implication that MySpace is crawling with sex offenders when the actual percentages were much smaller.

@Meltingemail: Considering the Facebook guy is 18, was doing it for a while (thus probably started when he was a minor), and was a high school student at the time, I'm wondering how appropriate it is to calling him a "child molester".
"Sexual predator", "scum of the earth", etc., is dandy. I'm just leery of calling high school kids barely into the cusp of adulthood "child molesters". It's technically correct (barely) but doesn't fit the stereotype.
(and, again, not defending the act, or the kid, so don't go there, please)

If you're shocked that there were sexual predators on Myspace, imagine how many are at, say water parks.

You have *zero* imagination if this is even remotely shocking to you.

Somebody pissed behind a dumpster in an alley one night.

PUNISH THEM FOREVER!

That's right. Make them keep their MySpace page. Require that they access it with a Comcast account. Force them to get a Dell. Show no mercy.

"...remain ripe with sexual predators."

Do they also remain RIFE with predators?

Ripe. Hmmmm. Those stinky perverts.

@Meltingemail: Yeah, I'm pretty sure the statutory rape guys are included too. It seems like there's not much distinction once someone is classified as a sexual predator.

@Eddie Falkenburg:

ROFL! You ftw.

@crashedpc: My afterlunch cup of warm milk with a spot of water is now sprayed across the keyboard.

@WeAre138: Did you say you loved hannah montana and dakota fanning?

@Meltingemail:
@Trai_Dep:
@Rectilinear Propagation:
@nataku83: I thought there was some "more than 2 years age difference" clause in most states...

@nicemarmot617: Yeah. Me too.

@BlackMage is doing the Time Warp agaaaaaaain!!!:

Personally I think it is ridiculous that people can even be discriminated against in such a manner. "Mrs. Jones! There are pictures of you in a BIKINI circulating the web. As a teacher, you know you are not permitted to: Drink, wear anything besides a pantsuit, visit questionable websites, make love, ...."

Just because you happen to be a teacher, or policman, or whatever doesn't mean you cease being able to lead a normal life or enjoy things.

@Rectilinear Propagation: Correction. It's not MySpace's fault that these people are ALIVE and on the internet...

Did I just say that? Quick. Bladefist. Come back me up!!!! :-)

@crashedpc: She stubbed her toe going to answer the door. Why don't you have a brownie?

@Rectilinear Propagation:

As far as I know, I wasn't aware there were laws on the books forbidding people that had sex with a 17 year old when they were 18 themselves, from being on the net.

"As a 'sexual predator', you are hereby banished from the land, never to return, and you may have no communication with anyone in our society. If someone in our society happens to meet you, they shall pretend you are invisible and they may attempt to walk through you. If said person fails in this, that person shall be put to death."

@Meltingemail: That's kind of what I was going to post... just because someone is a registered sex offender does NOT automatically make them a sex "predator."

Examples: the 15 year old who sent someone naked pictures of herself and was charged with child pornography, being caught with a prostitute (in some states), someone who got caught having sex in their car. None of those seem predatory to me.

@Meltingemail: It probably means "sex offender" and it depends on the state. Streaking at graduation, emailing nudie pictures of yourself to peers as a minor, boozing it up and peeing on the sidewalk, taking a picture of your 1 year old niece running around naked at the family pool party, and much much more may get your name on some list that will allow people to blackball you for the rest of your life.

Don't you feel safer now that MySpace and Connecticut are "Protecting" you from these people.

@BlackMage is doing the Time Warp agaaaaaaain!!!:

This, among other things, is one reason I left teaching. I was an elementary school teacher, loved my job, and was VERY good at it... but I was a young male, and wanted to have guilt-free fun. It's a shame the people expect teachers to be saints as well as educators... I would have stayed, but I seriously feared that someday something would come up that would ruin my career and my life...

@DustoMan:

Probably ~99% as many as they kicked off.