According to an article on Reuters Myspace has found and removed some 90,000 sex offenders from its site over the last two years using the help of a kind of a national sex offender registry that it created using the help of a company called Sentinel Safe Tech Holdings Corp.

The article indicates that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who was the person behind these inquiries, has also issued a similar subpoena to Facebook. It appears that Facebook has not formally responded to the subpoena as yet, but Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, stated that the site “has not yet had to handle a case of a registered sex offender meeting a minor through Facebook.”

The article did not specify whether a similar subpoena was issued to any of the other gazillion social networking sites or other platforms, but we may be hearing about this issue more in the future.

On the opposing side of the argument, a separate report commissioned by the National Association of Attorneys General called “Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies” finds that “the image presented by the media of an older male deceiving and preying on a young child does not paint an accurate picture of the nature of the majority of sexual solicitations.” The report also found cyber-bullying is in fact a much larger problem.

Interestingly, a Wired article described how Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumentha and South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster were two of the avid dissenters of the report’s findings. They may now be gathering evidence to help bolster their case.

From an academic perspective it may be completely accurate that the majority of solicitations that youth receive on-line are from other youth. It may also be accurate that media and other sources play up the threat of predators on social networking sites because they make good headlines but 90,000 registered sex offenders on a given social networking site is a pretty big number and warrants some consideration. It certainly creates a confusing environment for parents and lawmakers alike.

There was no indication in the article that all of the 90,000 offenders were actually using the social networking site to prey on youth, but rather that this was a proactive gesture on the part of Myspace to remove the offenders based on the information that they compiled in their sex-offender database. The article also seems to indicate that the 90,000 includes only US citizens. MySpace is an international platform so it makes one wonder if similar statistics would be found elsewhere.

To be honest I’m still making my way through the 278 pages of the Attorneys General report, but one paragraph in the Executive Summary did grab my attention. The report does indicate that the best way to protect children on line is comprehensive and multifaceted. Specifically it states:

“Technology can play a helpful role, but there is no one technological solution or specific combination of technological solutions to the problem of online safety for minors. Instead, a combination of technologies, in concert with parental oversight, education, social services, law enforcement, and sound policies by social network sites and service providers may assist in addressing specific problems that minors face online.”

Not an easy task, but if you believe the old saying that it takes a village to raise a child then this statement couldn’t be more accurate.

For more information on child safety on line parents can visit any number of great sites, including US based www.WiredSafey.org and www.connectsafely.org. The site www.kidsintheknow.ca is a Canadian site that is a great resource which is affiliated with www.cybertip.ca. Finally there is a United Kingdom based site called www.bullying.co.uk if you’re looking for resources on cyber-bullying.