MySpace to provide spyware to parents

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116900733587978625-search.html?KEYWORDS=mysp
ace
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116900733587978625-search.html?KEYWORDS=mys
pace&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month> &COLLECTION=wsjie/6month
 

MySpace Moves to Give Parents More Information

Web Site Popular With Kids
Offers to Monitor Names, Ages;
Will It Repel Biggest Users?
By JULIA ANGWIN
January 17, 2007; Page B1


In a bid to appease government critics, News
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=nws> Corp.'s popular
Web site MySpace.com is planning to offer free parental notification
software -- a move that risks alienating its young users.

Parents who install the monitoring software on their home computers would be
able to find out what name, age and location their children are using to
represent themselves on MySpace. The software doesn't enable parents to read
their child's e-mail or see the child's profile page and children would be
alerted that their information was being shared. The program would continue
to send updates about changes in the child's name, age and location, even
when the child logs on from other computers.

The software, code-named "Zephyr," represents MySpace's latest attempt to
pacify critics who claim that the site is unsafe for teens. Dozens of teens
have been molested and some even murdered by people who first contacted them
through MySpace, according to law-enforcement officials.

The stakes are high for News Corp., which bought MySpace in 2005 for $650
million, back when it had 17 million monthly unique visitors and very little
revenue. Since then MySpace has rocketed to 60 million monthly users in the
U.S., surpassed Yahoo as the No. 1 U.S. Web site in terms of page views, and
is expected to generate nearly $500 million in revenues this year.

But a group of 33 state attorneys general led by Connecticut's Richard
Blumenthal are investigating taking legal action against MySpace if it
doesn't raise the age limit to join the site to 16 (from 14 currently) and
begin verifying MySpace members' ages against public databases.

A lawsuit by the attorneys general could cost MySpace tens of millions of
dollars in fees and generate reams of negative publicity, at a time when
major advertisers are just overcoming their concerns about the site.

...

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