Seven arrested using MySpace database

The Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press are reporting that seven Texans were arrested, yesterday, because their names appeared on lists sent by MySpace to the Attorney General office, in Texas. Each man is a known, registered sex offender and had a profile on the popular social networking website. Texas officials are calling the arrests the country’s first large scale crackdown on registered offenders who use MySpace.

The men were picked up after a two-week investigation conducted by the Texas Attorney’s General Cyber Crimes and Fugitive units. The investigators used information provided by MySpace after an Attorney General subpoena demanded the MySpace list. MySpace had until May 29, 2007, to respond to requests for information regarding anything the social networking site might have turned up during efforts to create data-mining software. MySpace teamed up with Sentinel Tech Holding to develop technology that would link MySpace users via their profiles to several local sex offender registries.

The request came from each Attorney General in eight states. Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Georgia Attorneys General all sent letters requesting any information MySpace might have discovered. Citing the design of the website, lack of parental permissions, and other safeguards, the letter to MySpace stated that there is the potential for thousands of predators to lurk on the site. After MySpace deleted the accounts, and turned over information to Pennsylvania state court, Texas obtained the MySpace records for their investigations.

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Seven_arrested_using_MySpace_database