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MySpace Strengthen Protection for Young Users

The online community site, MySpace, has millions of visitors and many registered users. So far, anyone who wanted to join the online community was able to do so, and once registered he could talk to any of the other users. Soon, the site will issue new restrictions of how adults may contact the younger audience in the community. Currently kids 13 and under are not allowed to open accounts at the site, and kids between 14 and 15 can only display partial information on their pages.

After the changes take place, users who are 18 years of age and above will not be able to list on a 14- or 15- year-old`s friends unless they already know the person. If a user knows the youth`s e-mail address or full name then the site will allow him to list on his friends list. The problem is that MySpace doesn`t have any way of knowing what a user`s real age really is, and has to base decisions upon the information provided by the users alone.

The new guidelines follow a suit by a mother of a 14-year-old who claims that her daughter was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user that approached her on the site. MySpace officials say that the new regulations have been planned a long time ago and have nothing to do with recent lawsuits.