en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Sun, 19 May 2013 06:43:51 GMT 15 By Noelle Grudzinski ‘09

For the longest time, parents have been complaining about MySpace problems. Now that their opinions have finally gotten through to the government, Connecticut is finally doing something to stop the amount of predators on this site- and the amount of teenagers affected. The creators of MySpace finally realized that something had to be done in order to stop people from putting inappropriate images on their site. Thus, they took a step in the right direction by hiring a special officer, Hemanshu Nigam. Nigam is responsible for scanning the website for underage members and removing any bad material from people’s profiles. He is also going to do work outside of the Internet, such as creating programs and ads that will teach kids about Internet safety and how to avoid predators online. Nigam is definitely qualified for his job, for he has worked with Congress on issues involving child Internet protection. He has also served as an adviser to the White House on cyberstalking. “We are fortunate to have [Nigam] join MySpace, help us educate the public, and protect our members’ safety and privacy,” said Chris DeWolfe, the chief executive of MySpace, in a recent New York Times article. Most of the people that have been scanning the site haven’t been checking thoroughly enough. They have been easily fooled when members fake their ages, pretending to be eighteen when they sign up- until now. Nigam is trying to search the profiles of MySpace users, enforcing people who fake their ages to put their real ages with the rest of their personal information. Since there are about sixty-five million members on the site, finding these violators will be difficult, but Nigam is up to the challenge. The Connecticut government has also been working to stop crime on the Internet. They are proposing that sites add better age verification so that it is harder to fake how old you are. They also might provide downloadable software for parents that can be used to block certain sites. The ads Nigam has created are probably not going to stop people from joining the site, but they will help people recognize Internet predators. Members will also be reluctant to chat with these people if they seem like they are stalkers. This will hopefully reduce the amount of people involved in MySpace crimes. Overall, Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general, is very pleased with Nigam’s appointment. “A public safety campaign is a welcome step toward protecting people from predators [online],” Blumenthal remarked in a New York Times article this week. ]]> Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:16:00 GMT