l

8 Attorneys General wrote a letter requesting MySpace to divulge the names of registered sex offenders who use MySpace.  The highest ranking law enforcement officials from North Carolina, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania united in its request to MySpace on Monday.

North Carolina's Attorney General said that "in 2006, media outlets reported almost 100 criminal incidents across the country involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children".  Connecticut Attorney General called MySpace a "virtual playground" for predators and "that combination of sex offenders and children is a recipe for tragedy".  He went on, "The fact that MySpace failed to come forward immediately with this information is really staggering".

MySpace partnered with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. building a database with information on sex offenders in the U.S., which was launched earlier this month.

According to the letter, "It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known sex offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members".

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said that they are going thru the database and removing confirmed matches. That information would be turned over to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

In a statement, Nigam said legislation requiring sex offenders to register e-mail addresses and IM accounts would expedite the process.