(P) MySpace Content Controls Welcome

MySpace.com, the leasder in the social networking sector - and alarmingly, also a heavily-prowled site by sexual predators - is implementing some safety features for MySapce users. Welcome news for parents as reported from Rueters:

This may seem like a no-brainer (especially to marketers) but by next week, members who are 18 years or older will have to know the e-mail address or the first and last name of any 14- or 15-year old member whom they want to contact. Also, any of MySpace's more than 85 million members will now be able to choose to hide their information from strangers, and only make their profiles viewable to their friends. For sites like Friendster, this is rudimentary security stuff that the world's largest social network site has been lacking. Perhaps the open nature of the site was partly responsible for its enormous growth--that and its unmatched interactive features. News of the changes came after a 14-year-old girl from Texas on Monday sued Rupert Murdoch and Co. for $30 million, alleging that she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met on MySpace. The suit says the company did not take suitable precautions in protecting minors from sexual predators. Odds the case will be settled out of court: even. Should they prove effective, the safety moves could be a boon for advertising on MySpace, which said it's also revising its advertising policy for certain age groups; for example, ads for dating sites would not be shown to minors in the future.

Of course, parental oversight, conversations with your teen about purity and wisdom, and general in-home internet precautions are the first steps in helping protect your son or daughter from abusive use of the Web, or worse.

Read the whole story here.