MySpace culls thousands of profiles

MySpace.com, the social networking website that has proved a hit with the youth market, is reported to have removed 200,000 profiles deemed "objectionable" in a bid to reassure parents and advertisers about the safety of the site.

The website was bought last year by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, but has recently attracted criticism over fears that online predators might be interacting with young people using the site.

Ross Levinsohn, head of News Corp's internet division, told attendees at a New York conference some of the material taken down had contained hate speech or risque content.

The Financial Times reported Mr Levinsohn as saying: "It's a problem that's endemic to the internet - not just MySpace. The site, in the last two months, I think has become safer."

A number of US schools have already banned the website in order to protect students against the threat of online predators, but some students have also found themselves on the wrong side of the law for content they have posted.

Last month, a 17-year-old high school student in NSW was charged with publishing threats to kill two teachers and a 14-year-old girl on MySpace.

This week, The Buffalo News reported that a New York school student had been expelled for posting a comment on the site that contained a threat to burn down the principal's house.

The site mainly attracts the youthful 18 to 30 demographic, courted heavily by advertisers, and now boasts more female than male subscribers, said Forbes magazine.

But many teenage girls are attaching provocative images to their profiles, and providing details of their home town and school, making them easy to track down.

Although MySpace does not accept subscribers under the age of 14, teachers and parents remain concerned that the public nature of members' profiles could put teens in contact with online predators.

An additional concern for MySpace as a business is to attract advertisers to its site, and to do that it it must be able to provide assurances that an advertiser's reputation will not be sullied by objectionable content.

Marketing website AdAge recently said that, while social networking sites could offer a "potential eyeball windfall", offering the reach only dreamt about by advertisers, reports that they were attracting sexual predators left many marketers in fear of the associated negative publicity.

Posting on MySpace today shouldn't screw us tomorrow

I just got into the whole MySpace thing recently and I admit that I'm hooked. It has far better features than Facebook, has access to over 32 million people and offers unfettered contacts with scores of bands. What's not to like? Even the name of it is narcissistically stimulating-MySpace. "This is my space." "MY SPACE!"

But last week the Chicago Tribune ran an article "When what happens on MySpace doesn't stay on MySpace" that details the many bad things that can happen when information placed on personal sites such as MySpace or Facebook become visible to the public. Many high schools, colleges and businesses have now begun to conduct background checks on potential/current students or employees in order to find out more about them. What this means is that too much of the wrong information on Yourspace can hurt Yourfuture.

As college students, this is cause for concern. Some of us have a tendency to be candid about some pretty incriminating things in our profiles--blogs of discontent with work or school, pictures of last weekend's party, etc.--that can come back sooner or later to haunt us. We have a tendency to mythologize our "coolness" for all our peers to see, and we rarely give second thought to a fifty-something boss finding our profile only to find out that, not only do we hate his guts, but we also like to do body shots off of exotic dancers.

But should we really be ashamed? We are young and should be having the time of our lives before the pink elephant of responsibility becomes too large to ignore. Only true criminals really have anything to hide. (On that note, it would be wise of us to refrain from bragging about underage drinking, vandalism, or some other misdemeanor that we partook in the preceding night. Some kids, sadly, are beginning to find themselves in handcuffs because now many police departments routinely scan Ourspaces to find who graffitied the water tower or where the underage party was last night). But if we get wasted with our friends or feel the need to vent about some personal injustice in the classroom or at the office without being racist or derogatory, should fear of getting in trouble stop us? It's Ourspace, not Theirspace.

We use sites like MySpace because, in this fast-paced, tech-savvy world, we need an outlet that still allows us to...hang out. If we have to work on the web, and we're told that we should shop on the web, then why can't we at least play on the web without the fear of scrutiny or victimization. I guess this means that, yes, Big Brother is watching us, but this big brother is an older generation that's semi-removed from the world of online connection sites. And it's what they can't understand and what we think is fun that is what they are willing to use to try to bring us down.
But that generation will pass into retirement and eventually we will be the ones hiring employees, admitting students or patrolling the suburbs. And by that time nearly everyone, for better or worse, will have Theirspaces and the subsequent juvenile skeletons poking out of the closets of their online domain. And maybe then we won't have to take everything in life so seriously anymore.

Myspace purges 200,000 questionable profiles

IN A MOVE to make its site safer for US kiddies, the megahost site MySpace.com, has purged more than 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its site.
The site, run by News Corp’s interweb division said that the purged sites included 'hate speech' and 'risqu' material.

However, Ross Levinsohn, said that objectionable sites were a problem that’s endemic to the internet – not just MySpace. He said that the purge will mean that the site has just become much safer.

Lately, Myspace has been at the centre of a row as to whether it is a place for teens to meet predatory adults. Teachers and police have been concerned after a number of high profile court cases in the US. They would prefer that kids used the Internet to do their homework.

Of course if this was applied to all News Corp’s portfolio, its tabloids would be toast.

Freewebs takes aim at new funding, MySpace.com

Freewebs is $1 million closer to turning its Web site-building service into the world's next MySpace.com.

The Silver Spring company already has 10 million members using its tools to create Web sites, online photo albums and blogs. It makes money from fees for premium services and Google-placed ads based on the content of user Web sites.

Freewebs (www.freewebs.com) was set to close a $1 million bridge loan by the end of March and has met with more than 20 venture capital firms in this area and in Silicon Valley concerning a $5 million to $7 million first round of funding as soon as the summer.

Freewebs, founded in 2001, has paid its own way to this point. The company is profitable and generated revenue of $970,000 in 2004, according to Dun & Bradstreet. The company says 2005 sales were in the millions, but wouldn't provide details.

"We don't need the cash," says President and Chief Operating Officer Shervin Pishevar. "We're just looking for brainpower and wisdom to take us to the next level."

The platform for growth is online advertising, a market expected to increase in the United States to $18.9 billion in 2010 from $9.3 billion in 2005, according to New York-based JupiterResearch.

The rise of sites such as MySpace.com and Flickr, which are driven by user-provided content, gives hope to Freewebs and other sites with large numbers of users. Freewebs says it has 16 million unique monthly visitors and 500 million monthly page views.

Intermix Media, which has 27 million unique visitors through its MySpace.com and other sites, sold for $580 million in cash to News Corp. in October 2005. Flickr, which enables users to organize and search for photos online, sold to Yahoo last March for an undisclosed amount.

Freewebs will use its new funding to recruit more executives and engineers. The company says it really wants to tap the experience and contacts of backers such as Bobby Yazdani, venture capital firm Amidzad and an unidentified early Google employee who provided the bridge loan.

Yazdani is a serial entrepreneur who is founder and chief executive of Saba Software, a Redwood Shores, Calif. public company. Amidzad is a Palo Alto, Calif. early-stage venture firm.

The Google investor can guide the company toward its goal of becoming the next big thing by adding top talent and helping expand its membership base to 50 million users.

"We're trying to build as close to a Google-esque company as possible but to have it be Washington-Maryland-Virginia based," says Pishevar, who caters breakfast and lunch everyday for Freewebs' employees.

Yazdani, who shuttles between his Potomac home and California, sees the potential for Freewebs to take on iconic status in the local business community.

"I've seen over the areas just a great group of talent and entrepreneurs stepping up to the plate in the Washington area," he says.

Yazdani is active in the local tech scene. He is an investor in McLean Internet telephone company Aptela and in D.C. broadband television network Tvext, where he holds a board seat. Last May, Saba bought Baltimore-based Thinq Learning Solutions for $20 million.

e-mail: bhammer@bizjournals.com phone: 703/312-8345

MySpace takes down rude profiles

Networking site smartens up
By John OatesPublished Monday 3rd April 2006 08:41 GMT

MySpace has removed 200,000 profiles from its site in the last few months. The "objectionable" pages have been taken down for including hate speech or being too risqué.

News Corp internet division head Ross Levinsohn told press it was an internet problem rather than a feature of MySpace. The site contains thousands of profiles of individuals outlining their musical tastes and dating needs. It has also proved popular with school bullies setting up pages attacking their victims.

News Corp wants to smarten MySpace up to attract more advertisers and marketeers without alienating its users, who are attracted by its slightly anarchic feel. It is hoping to attract advertising from mainstream brands and is setting up an account team to help sell space across its internet properties.

Colleges tell student workers to keep Web posts tame

Drew, Seton Hall warn of inappropriate content

BY LAURA BRUNO
DAILY RECORD

The same college students who police underage drinking and inappropriate dorm partying must also police their own photos and dialogue on social Web sites the likes of Facebook and MySpace -- or risk losing their campus-based jobs at area private universities.

Drew University and Seton Hall University officials recently met with resident assistants and peer mentors, and issued a warning: As student employees, who represent their colleges, online posts including profanity or partying are not proper Web fare.

"How can student leaders expect to earn their peers'respect if they flaunt policy-breaking behavior on their Facebook page?" said Frank Merckx, Drew's associate dean of educational and student affairs.

In the past, Drew asked its RAs to keep their voicemail greetings tame, avoiding long musical interludes or shouting friends in the background. When a parent called to express concerns that their child's student mentor had an online profile with a photo showing a water pipe -- better known as a "bong," often used for smoking marijuana -- the college realized it was behind the times, Merckx said.

"A lot of students believe it's a private forum, but it's more public than anything," Merckx said.

College students across the country are learning that their misplaced sense of privacy on these sites is not only naïve, but also can result in losing a job or a coveted slot on a team.

For example:

• Two Louisiana State swimmers were kicked off their team last spring for criticizing their coaches on Facebook.

• An employer who was ready to hire a student from Vermont Technical College changed his mind after seeing the student's Facebook page.

• A University of Colorado offensive tackle was suspended from a bowl game in December for sending a racially threatening message through Facebook to a Colorado cross-country runner.

Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg has said he doubts college students will give up the sites completely over the crackdowns.

"Some people may get busted by administrators if they're doing things that are stupid, but on a day-to-day basis, the ability to communicate ... is so valuable that everyone keeps using the site and they probably will keep using the sites."

Officials at Drew, Seton Hall, Fairleigh Dickinson University and the College of St. Elizabeth said they will not search Web sites looking for violations, but they know plenty of others are looking. Professors have Facebook profiles and so do administrators, including Merckx, who said officials use the forum at times to post notices of campus events.

Involving families

In cases where something inappropriate was discovered, it was due to another student or family member notifying the university, Merckx said.

So far, at St. Elizabeth and Fairleigh Dickinson's Florham Park campus, officials said they have not received reports of student employees posting items that reflect poorly on the schools. All students have been alerted in general to the lack of privacy on these sites, they said.

Makenzie Sandler, 21, a junior psychology major at Drew and an RA, said she was surprised at first when campus officials discussed the issue.

"I didn't know how a private Web site had anything to do with the university," Sandler said. "Especially with Facebook, I thought it was private because only people in colleges can see it."

Sandler said she uses both Facebook and MySpace to keep in touch with friends and didn't think anything she posted there could get her in trouble at Drew. She's been on MySpace since high school. She has since removed one picture that showed a friend consuming alcohol.

"There are a few who felt like it was an infringement of their rights, but I think most everyone understood," Sandler said. "It makes sense ... If (other students) see us breaking policy, it will be harder for them to take us seriously. It would be totally hypocritical."

Following links

At Seton Hall, a student brought to officials' attention potentially troubling aspects of a peer adviser's online posting, which got administrators on the sites and looking.

Kevin Clark, who oversees student discipline at Seton Hall, said he looked at one posting, but then followed links from the students' page to friends of friends.

"There were quite a few folks with questionable content and pictures," Clark said. "It wasn't illegal acts, but it was things we don't want portrayed by our student leaders.

The undesirable postings included profanity and references to drinking and drugs, Clark said.

"We were very ignorant to the extent of the problem," Clark said.

Like Drew, Seton Hall gathered its RAs and peer advisers and asked them to remove certain types of photos and posts. They also explained that potential employers can easily do Web searches and find the same sites. Even with Facebook, which is limited to those with college e-mail addresses, students may be facing alumni for jobs -- alumni who may have access to current Facebook profiles.

"Most understood, but some didn't like it," Clark said. "Some thought it was Big Brother-ish. It's not like I'm sitting out there spending vast amounts of time researching their sites."

Student education

Clark, too, said he will not seek out student-employees' Web sites -- but if something is brought to his attention, he will check it out.

The college's recent education on the matter will become a two-hour online course during freshman orientation, when laptops are handed out to the incoming Class of 2010.

The course will discuss Internet safety and appropriate conduct on Facebook and MySpace, along with basic computer technical support guidelines, Clark said.

Drew junior Rebecca Gambale, 19, an English major and RA from the Long Valley section of Washington Township, said she didn't understand officials' concern at first, either. Then she got to thinking about how pervasive Facebook and MySpace are among the college set.

"I'm in my classes and you see people with laptops on Facebook," Gambale said.

Gambale said she was careful with her profiles because she sensed her residents might look up her profile. They had gossiped enough already when she posted a picture of her and her boyfriend.

"You don't want to give anyone any reason to question your authority," Gambale said.

Lewis, the 5-year-old black-and-white longhaired cat

Fairfield's so-called "Terrorist of Sunset Circle" has some new friends in his kitty corner. Lewis, the 5-year-old black-and-white longhaired cat who made international headlines this week, now has a profile on MySpace.com
The Connecticut Post first reported on Lewis last week after his owner was arrested and he violated his house arrest, put in place following alleged attacks on an Avon representative and neighbors in the Sunset Circle area of Fairfield. Fairfield Animal Web surfers can visit www.myspace.com/lewisthecrazycat to view his member profile, created by out-of-state fans who admit they have never met Lewis. The site was created on Thursday; as of Saturday, Lewis had 25 registered friends on the MySpace online social network The Connecticut Post first reported on Lewis last week after his owner was arrested and he violated his house arrest, put in place following alleged attacks on an Avon representative and neighbors in the Sunset Circle area of Fairfield. Fairfield Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira issued a restraining order on Lewis after determining he posed a potential threat to town residents.Lewis's owner, Ruth Cisero, fed him Prozac twice a day for two months in an effort to forestall any unruly behavior, but weaned him off of the drug when she felt he was suffering a negative reaction. Solveira arrested Cisero for failing to comply with the restraining order and for reckless endangerment after Lewis escaped the house and attacked another person. One victim, Donna Greenstein, sued Cisero following the attack.

Cisero confirmed that Lewis is under lifelong house arrest and that now one of the victims is pushing to have him euthanized. "My biggest fear is someone reporting that [Lewis] got out when he has not, and I will be arrested again," Cisero said. She has a hearing at Bridgeport Superior Court on April 25.

Lewis has made international news, with coverage on local stations as well as CNN and BBC. Perhaps it's only appropriate that Lewis joined MySpace.

"As long as the media and law hold him to 'person' standards, he might as well have a MySpace profile, too," said Ryan Tompkinson, 25, of Pine Hill, N.J., one of Lewis's new MySpace "friends."

Friends Erin Reeves, 23, of Sudbury, Mass., and Chandana Ravi, 22, of Oak Park, Ill., created the MySpace profile as a joke amongst their friends.

"[Ravi] and I were talking last night and thought this would be funny, so we made a page," Reeves said. "[Reeves] thought it would be funny to do a MySpace page from the cat's point of view, since the only one not really represented in the stories is Lewis," Ravi said.

While some people express concern for the condition and treatment of Lewis, others wonder at the widespread attention this story has garnered.

"It's absurd that a cat story would be aired on 'respected' new programs, preempting actual news," Tompkinson said.

But Cisero is grateful that her side — not to mention Lewis's — is being represented.

"I am so appreciative of all the good trying to be done by most of the media," she said. "The only thing I want is the truth so that people can make a fair judgement."

After all the hype, the creators of Lewis's profile have a soft spot for the confined kitty. "I've never seen the cat, nor do I know the owner. I just kind of felt bad for him," Reeves said.

"I did feel bad for a cat that is forced to take Prozac, has a restraining order against it and is under house arrest," Ravi said. One of Lewis' MySpace pals thinks the profile will serve an additional purpose for the house-ridden feline.

"Maybe we can even find a Louise the crazy female cat for him on here, too," Tompkinson said, "because every crazy cat needs a counterpart."

School district to host Internet Safety Forum

CATSKILL - The Catskill school district, concerned that students may be inadvertently sharing personal information with the world over the Internet, will host an Internet Safety Forum this month.

The forum, which is intended for a mature audience, will focus on Internet safety and abuse, as well as the Web site MySpace.com, which some critics say attracts predators. State police Investigator Daniel Bien of the Cyber Terrorism Unit said he will give a presentation and take questions during the forum, which is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. April 11 in the Catskill High School auditorium.

"Our primary impetus in putting this forum on is to be proactive in our community," said Assistant Principal William Ball. He said there has been increasing concern about students using MySpace; some are posting profiles containing personal information, not realizing the information becomes accessible worldwide, not just to their friends.

Ball said inappropriate photographs and references to criminal activity and bullying have been seen on MySpace. He said there have been instances where police involvement became necessary due to situations found on the site.

Bien said he when he talks about MySpace, he recommends that parents allow their children to use the site because it is a way for them to express themselves and be creative. However, he said parents need to review the content of the site and discuss it with their children. He said there are ways to secure the site so personal information does not become available.

"One of the things I tell parents is that all of your daughter's friends know what your daughter looks like, so she doesn't have to put her pictures online," Bien said.

MacKenzie Zajac, 17, said she uses MySpace to talk to her friends but not to meet new people. She said her parents know about the site, which she visits at least once a day. Zajac, a high school junior, said the site could be dangerous for people under 15 because they may not be aware of pedophiles or older people posing as young people.


Amanda Hutchings, 16, a sophomore at the high school, said she too only talks to her friends from the site and does not use MySpace to meet new people. She said she does not know of anyone who has had problems with the site, but noted that she and her friends keep their comments simple and do not reveal where they live.

According to information provided by MySpace, no one under 14 is allowed to use the site. The site's terms and conditions read, in part, "Your MySpace.com profile may not include the following items: telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, and any photographs posted by you may not contain nudity or obscene, lewd, excessively violent, harassing, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable subject matter." The site also posts tips for using MySpace, including a reminder that the profiles and forums are public spaces.

In addition to discussing MySpace, Bien said he also talks about things like phishing scams - in which con artists posing as legitimate sites try to get credit card and other personal information; e-mail security, hoaxes and get-rich-quick schemes. He said he also touches on the terrorism aspect of Internet safety.

"A lot of the hoaxes and the scams have been traced directly back to funding terrorists," he said.

MySpace Weeds-out Risque Content

In a "Get Clean" drive of sorts, the Web site MySpace.com has removed over 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its site in the last few months.

MySpace.com which is run by News Corp's internet division, said that the pages have been taken down for including hate speech or being too risqu .

Ross Levinsohn, head - internet division, News Corp, said that this kind of content is fast becoming a problem that is intrinsic to the internet as a whole, and not just MySpace.com. He said that culling the objectionable material only meant that the site was being made safer.

Of late MySpace.com has been in the news... for all the wrong reasons...

Sometime back a California-based middle school student created a group on MySpace.com wherein he allegedly posted expletive remarks about a female classmate, besides threatening to shoot her repeatedly in the head. Not only did the boy face expulsion, but twenty of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting.

MySpace also hit the headlines as the centre of controversy - whether the Web site was becoming a convenient place for predatory adults to solicit young teenage customers

MySpace Teen Safety Clean-Up May See Backlash

In an effort to promote teen safety, social network MySpace recently deleted 200,000 "objectionable" accounts, but the move may have been a risky one, writes Business 2.0.

When Friendster - another social networking site - began removing profiles it found too risque or offensive, users ran for the exits, helping to spur rival social networks' growth, including MySpace. MySpace may suffer similar consequences, but with 250,000 new accounts each day, the removals seem hardly able to deter MySpace's growth, according to the article.

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