However, MySpace said that it was barred by the provisions of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act from releasing additional private information about the account holders without a subpoena.

In a statement e-mailed to news outlets, MySpace officials said that they are "doing everything short of breaking the law to ensure that the information about these predators gets to the proper authorities."

Ongoing Predator Problem

The issue of sexual predators using MySpace as a tool to identify and contact potential victims has plagued the site for the past several years. In an October 2006 article referenced by the attorneys general, Wired Magazine reporter Kevin Poulson wrote a short computer program to match known sex offenders with MySpace account holders, and turned up 744 hits.

Earlier that same year, a 14-year-old girl and her mother filed suit against News Corp., the parent company of MySpace, for allegedly failing to take adequate steps to prevent a 19-year-old from obtaining personal information about her that led to a sexual assault. Additional lawsuits were filed by other families in January of this year.

MySpace has been taking increasingly aggressive steps to confront the online predator issue. In April 2006, the site hired a new Chief Security Officer, Hemanshu Nigam, a security investigator at Microsoft and a former Department of Justice trial attorney with extensive experience in cases involving child pornography, child predators, and child trafficking.

Among other things, MySpace now posts local Amber alerts, requires all users to have valid e-mail addresses, and blocks those over 18 from contacting younger users.

Database of Sex Offenders

In addition, at the end of 2006, MySpace announced that it would be developing software with Sentinel Tech Holding to build and maintain a database of the nation's 550,000 registered sex offenders. When the partnership was announced, Nigam described it as "a significant step to keep our members as safe as possible."

"We are committed to keeping sex offenders off MySpace," Nigam said. "Sentinel Safe will allow us to aggregate all publicly available sex offender databases into a real-time searchable form, making it easy to cross-reference and remove known registered sex offenders from the MySpace community."

Yesterday, Nigam told the New York Times that MySpace implemented its sex offender filter 12 days ago, and had already begun removing matching accounts before receiving the letter from the attorneys general. "In six months, we are the only company in the country that has stepped up in an area that faces the entire Internet industry," he said. "We did it with our own costs."

One of the attorneys general pursuing this issue, Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal, told the Times that he was disappointed by MySpace's refusal to turn over additional information about the account holders, and said that he is planning to hold a conference call among all 50 state attorneys general to discuss further steps.