Popular Web site is target of probe:
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is up to his usual misguided ways. This time he’s focusing his wrath on Facebook.
Connecticut’s attorney general is scrutinizing Facebook, the popular social-networking site, for allowing convicted sex offenders to register, calling into question whether the company is doing enough to protect users.
The inquiry by Richard Blumenthal is designed to force Palo Alto’s Facebook to take a more aggressive stand against sexual predators after his office uncovered at least three cases of such offenders becoming members, a spokesman confirmed. In addition, Blumenthal’s team found that some of Facebook’s users had posted sexually explicit material that was not swiftly removed.
A whole three, compared to MySpace’s 29,000. Ooooooooh, Facebook really is a criminal haven.
Connecticut officials have contacted Facebook and asked it to remove the sex offenders’ profiles. Blumenthal plans to continue his inquiry.
A Facebook spokeswoman did not return telephone calls seeking comment. Chris Kelly, the company’s chief privacy officer, told the New York Times that he is not familiar with the Connecticut investigation but that the company receives many reports about sex offenders registering on the Web site. The profiles are usually removed within 72 hours, he said.
“We want to be a good partner to the states in attempting to address this societal problem,” Kelly told the Times. “We’ve worked with them for quite some time now, and we look forward to continuing our fruitful partnership.”
Facebook maintains more-stringent security rules than some of its competitors because of its early days as an online destination for students. Full user profiles aren’t visible to the general public, for instance, and can be seen only by people who have been confirmed as friends.
It’s bad enough that AG Blumenthal places the blame on MySpace instead of inattentive parents now he’s going after a site that has very little criminal activity. In the year and a half that I’ve been doing this site the stories about Facebook pale in comparison to the stories about MySpace.
As I’ve said before AG Blumenthal needs to concentrate on keeping sex offenders off the streets than off of MySpace or Facebook.
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