Under pressure from various quarters to protect its underage members, MySpace will make it harder for strangers to contact younger teens via the site, and it will stop showing them certain ads, such as for online dating services, reports the New York Times. Starting next week, users over 18 will have to enter the actual first and last names or email addresses of under-16 users to contact them, rather than simply their user names.
"A lot of 14- and 15-year-olds are friends in school with 16- and 17-year-olds," said Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer of News Corp.'s internet unit. "We want to balance the openness of our community with the interest of protecting the member."
MySpace will also start to allow all members to set their profiles as private - that is, available only to their friends list. MySpace had encouraged those under 16 to set their profiles to be private, but profiles of anyone older were public.
Previous coverage:
- Teen Sues MySpace, Cites Sexual Assault
- MySpace to Solicit Bids for Search from Big Three
- Jupiter: MySpace Much Better for Music Marketing than Music Sites
- Bebo Overtakes MySpace in the U.K.
- Media and Ad Execs to Brainstorm about Social Networks
- Hitwise: MySpace Top Source of Google Search Traffic
- MySpace in Talks with Google, Microsoft - Not Yahoo
- Social Networks Promising but Unpredictable Ad Vehicle
- MySpace Hires Security Officer to Ease Parents' Fears
- Media Buyers Shun Social-Networking Sites
