p2p news / p2pnet: A 14-year-old girl is suing Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace.com for $30 million, claiming it doesn’t adequately protect underage members.

Now the site is said to be planning new restrictions on how adults can contact younger users.

"The site already prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts and displays only partial profiles for those registered as 14 or 15 years old unless the person viewing the profile is already on the teen’s list of friends," says the Associated Press.

But under changes expected to take effect next week, “MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old’s friends’ list unless they already know either the youth’s e-mail address or full name," says the story.

“Any user will still be able to get a partial profile of younger users by searching for other attributes, such as display name. The difference is that currently, adults can then request to be added to a youth’s list to view the full profile; that option will disappear for adults registered as 18 and over.”

However, “users under 18 can still make such contact, and MySpace has no mechanism for verifying that users submit their true age when registering. That means adults can sign up as teens and request to join a 14-year-old’s list of friends, which would enable the full profiles.”

The 14-year-old says she was sexually assaulted by another MySpace.com user.

MySpace will also, “avoid displaying gambling and other adult-themed ads on minors’ profile pages and target special public-service announcements to them,” adds AP.

Also See:
$30 million - Girl sues MySpace.com, June 20, 2006
Associated Press - MySpace.com adding security measures, June 21, 2006

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