Under strong pressure from several state attorneys general around the country, MySpace has been working aggressively to identify registered sex offenders who have established profiles on its site. On May 2, the company launched a program called Sentinel Safe, which checks registered sex offender information against information in MySpace profiles.
Over the past few weeks, MySpace has been delivering the results of those checks to the various states. On Thursday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott held a press conference announcing a series of arrests stemming from the information provided by MySpace.
"Let me first say that we live in a world where the Internet is an essential tool for business, for information, for education, and even a place for fun," Abbott said. "It's a place where young kids can go and be involved in a complete new social world. Unfortunately, the Internet is also a place we see that criminals are lurking, looking for a child they can victimize."
Seven Nabbed
"Today we are announcing the arrest of seven predators who had established profiles on MySpace.com, who are registered sex offenders," Abbott continued. "Four of those arrests were made here in the Houston area, two in Austin, and one in Dallas."
The individuals were arrested for violating conditions of their probation or parole. Those conditions specifically prohibit them from using the Internet. During his press conference, Abbott singled out one violator, Patrick Blevins, for particular attention.
"Blevins," Abbott said, "is a habitual sex offender with multiple arrests in two states for sexual misdeeds." He noted that Blevins had served eight years in a Texas prison for a sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl, and had been arrested twice in North Carolina for sexual crimes against children.
'Buffet of Children'
Abbott held his press conference at the Cyber Crimes Unit, a division of the Attorney General's Office that he founded in 2003 to fight online sexual exploitation. The Cyber Crimes Unit worked closely with the Office's Fugitive Unit to track down and arrest the probation and parole violators.
Abbott pointed out that while MySpace is a magnet for teens to have fun and socialize with their peers, it is also a magnet for people who prey on children.
"These predators are incorrigible," he said. "They will stop at nothing in their attempts to find their next victim, and that's precisely the type of platform that the Internet is providing for them. They look at MySpace.com as a buffet of children where they can select their next victim. We must do all we can to make the Internet a safe place for our children."
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