TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: MySpace Hires Child Safety Expert From Microsoft

MySpace Hires Child Safety Expert From Microsoft

Eric Auchard (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:52:13 -0500

By Eric Auchard

News Corp. is set on Tuesday to name a security czar to oversee child
safety measures on MySpace.com, the popular teen dating and music site
that has provoked an outcry among parents who fear they have not done
enough to thwart sexual predators.

Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, now director of Consumer Security Outreach &
Child Safe Computing at Microsoft Corp., will head up safety,
education, privacy and law enforcement oversight programs for MySpace
and other Fox Web properties.

The appointment is effective May 1, News Corp.'s Fox Interactive
Media, the parent of MySpace, said in a statement.

The move is one of several responses MySpace and its owners have taken
in recent months to respond to harsh criticism by parent groups, legal
authorities and politicians.

Just last week, a U.S. Congressional committee held hearings on
potential laws to thwart the sexual exploitation of children online.

MySpace, which began as a music fan site, has caught fire as the most
popular online forum for teenagers to hang out and express themselves
with peers. Largely a U.S. cultural phenomenon, MySpace now counts 69
million members.

Its success is tied to how it combines together in one place many
features otherwise only available separately -- from blogs, to instant
messaging, music videos and photo galleries -- powering it to become
the second most visited U.S. site.

Nigam brings strong credentials to his new role. He has more than 15
years of experience in online safety, including serving as a Federal
prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department
of Justice.

He was also an advisor to a Congressional commission on online child
safety, and an advisor to the White House on cyberstalking.

Prior to Microsoft, Nigam was vice president of worldwide Internet
enforcement at the Motion Picture Association of America, where he
oversaw the global strategy to combat online video piracy for seven
major Hollywood studios.

MySpace has implemented a series of measures to protect young
users. It limits access to the site to members who are at least 14 and
provide special protections to kids under 16. It claims to have
deleted more than 250,000 profiles of underage kids since the site's
inception.

Over the weekend, MySpace said it was working with the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children and the Advertising Council to create the
largest-ever online safety program using nationwide public service
advertisements.

Gartner Inc. Internet analyst Allen Weiner, whose teenage daughter is
a big fan of MySpace, said the site suffers from what sociologists
might call the "busy street corner problem."

"People are going to find nefarious things to do with anything that
draws such a huge audience," Weiner said. "I think MySpace is actually
doing a pretty decent job in terms of security," the analyst said.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

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