Myspace Predators

Myspace.com is one of the most popular internet sites for teenagers. But it's also popular for child predators.

Teenagers love to post their profiles and photos on the Web site which has more than 100-million users.

And sexual predators like it because it's an easy way to gain access to kids.

So, reporter Kevin Poulson of Wired magazine decided to see if he could make it safer.

He designed a computer program that scans the profiles on myspace.com, and cross-references them to lists of convicted sex offenders from state registries.

"There were some with records of crimes against children who had an inordinately large number of children on their friends list," said Poulson

He added information from almost 386,000 offenders in 46 states.

The results were stunning.

The program highlighted thousands of likely matches.

He also checked profiles, individually.

There were 7,000 possible matches. Of those, 744 registered offenders had posted their profiles on myspace.com.

"In his myspace profile, he had links to half a dozen kids, all young boys," said Poulson. "And he was posting messages to their public comment boards of a sexual nature."

Police, posing as kids, set up a sting operation. The suspect, a husband and father of five, is now in jail.

"This guy was a registered level three sex offender with a profile on myspace, actively looking for young boys to molest," said Sgt. John Cowie, Suffolk Country Police Department, N.Y.

In response to the growing problem, myspace.com officials are backing federal legislation that would require convicted offenders to register their e-mail addresses.

But as child safety advocates point out, Poulson's detective work shows sites like Myspace.com could do more.