MySpace Focuses on Teen Safety Fears

In an effort to calm fears concerning young users' safety, the networking website MySpace.com - which has over 66 million users and is growing rapidly among American teens with 250,000 new users signing up daily - has taken 200,000 "objectionable" profiles off of its website, reports the Financial Times.

According to Ross Levinsohn, head of the internet division of News Corp, some of the material removed contained "hate speech" or was "too risque."

"It's a problem that's endemic to the internet - not just MySpace," Levinsohn said. "The site, in the last two months, I think has become safer."

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp acquired the MySpace.com last year for $580,000 and has placed it at the centre of the company's internet strategy. A similar networking site targeting high school and college student, Facebook.com, recently turned down a $750,000 offer, hoping to sell for $2 billion.

As social networks like MySpace and Facebook experience more success, marketers are eager to capitalize on their advertising potential, but fear the lack of control over the sites' content. Some media buyers have avoided social networking sites for their major clients all together, not wanting to risk putting ads next to racy or offensive content like that MySpace has made an effort to remove.


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