|
Trenton,
NJ – Attorney General Anne Milgram
today issued a third civil subpoena to Fox
Interactive Media for names and information
about convicted New Jersey sex offenders
with profiles on the social networking site
MySpace.
Two
previous subpoenas have disclosed a total
of 248 registered New Jersey sex offenders
with MySpace profiles after MySpace announced
it had identified and deleted the profiles.
MySpace on Tuesday reported that it has
now identified more than 29,000 registered
sex offenders, a figure that is more than
four times greater than its original report
in May that it had identified 7,000 profiles
of sex offenders.
“The
new data makes it shockingly clear how vigilant
we must be in fighting the danger of sexual
offenders surfing social networking sites,’’
Attorney General Milgram said. “As
new information becomes available we will
continue to demand that MySpace makes available
to us the names of convicted New Jersey
sex offenders that set up MySpace accounts.
But this won’t stop sexual predators
from going on-line. I urge parents to continue
to monitor their children’s computer
habits.’’
In
response to a subpoena issued May 22, it
was learned 141 convicted New Jersey sex
offenders had profiles on MySpace. Further
investigation determined that more than
half those identified were on probation
or parole. A second subpoena issued June
29 found an additional 107 New Jersey registered
sex offenders with profiles on MySpace.
As with the first group of names, the Attorney
General has forwarded the names to parole,
probation and corrections officials and
to the State Police.
My
Space has identified the convicted sex offenders
through a partnership with Sentinel Tech
Holding Corporation, an identity verification
firm.
The
information previously provided by MySpace
included names, e-mail addresses and IP
addresses of convicted sex offenders who
had registered with state authorities.
According
to MySpace records, the 141 New Jersey sex
offenders initially identified logged onto
MySpace 34,000 times during the time they
were registered with the networking site,
which ranged from a few months to two years.
Many individuals logged onto the site hundreds
of times.
There
were 43 MySpace users matched to parolees
and another 37 users on probation. The other
61 are registered sex offenders under Megan’s
Law, but not on parole or probation. Similar
data is not yet available concerning the
second group of 107 sex offenders identified
in response to the state’s second
subpoena.
The
State Parole Board and Probation Services
have been checking for violations of the
offenders’ terms of supervision. Conditions
of parole could bar accessing the Internet.
The
State Police Digital Technology Investigations
Unit also is reviewing the data. The State
Police unit is designated as the state’s
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The
State Parole Board has administrative authority
to impose special conditions of supervision
to address sex offender behavior. Similarly,
sex offenders on probation supervision can
have their conditions of probation modified,
if warranted. Sex offenders who are not
on parole or probation are monitored by
law enforcement for compliance with change
of address reporting requirements under
Megan’s Law.
#
# # |
