"States scrutinize minors' security on MySpace"

www.csmonitor.com
By Alexandra Marks
March 12th, 2007

As we all know, there have been many cases where men have set up times to meet with girl minors. Therefore, the state of Connecticut is trying to push for a bill that will limit this from happening. They became the first state in the United States to "introduce legislation that would require MySpace, other social networking sites, and chat rooms to verify the ages of their users. Any postings by those under 18 would require parental permission. Failure to comply would result in a fine to the Internet company of $5,000 per incident." However, MySpace feels as if the legislation has good intentions, but will be ineffective if fixing this problem.

I believe what Connecticut is doing is a good thing because it will prevent incidents like this from happening. Furthermore, by putting a restriction on a site where a minor needs permission from an adult, this will give parents more control over what their children are doing on the internet.

This form of protection, age verification, is already used for many other things, such as buying alcohol and cigarettes online, therefore, it should be just as effective. In the end, this should limit the number of sex offenses that take place over the internet.