Friday, 19 January 2007

MySpace Steps Up Safety Efforts with 'Zephyr'

MySpace has launched a free tool called ‘Zephyr’ that aims to provide online safety for children. Many children have been falling prey to online criminals by divulging personal information about themselves on social networking sites. The software aims to allow parents know what their...

MySpace has launched a free tool called ‘Zephyr’ that aims to provide online safety for children. Many children have been falling prey to online criminals by divulging personal information about themselves on social networking sites.

The software aims to allow parents know what their children are doing while on MySpace.

This tool is said to alert parents of the username, age and location a child lists on personal MySpace pages. However, the tool is also designed to give the kids enough privacy on their MySpace profile.

The service is free, but has a catch as it won’t allow parents to view the child’s password-protected profiles or any communications they have with friends.

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace’s chief security officer said in a statement: “Many of our safety features are built around age and it’s important that people honestly reflect their accurate age while on our site.”

The tool has come at a time when MySpace has been slapped with lawsuits by parents of four under-aged girls, claiming their daughters were sexually assaulted by adults they first met on the site.

The families are reportedly seeking damages in the millions of dollars. In each case, an adult MySpace.com member contacted the minor girl, obtained her personal information, and later sexually assaulted her, claimed Barry & Loewy, the Austin, Texas, law firm that is co-counseling the cases with Arnold & Itkin of Houston.

The question remains, what about protecting children who use other social networking sites? Can a tool bring safety, or is there a deeper concern that needs to be addressed.