Texas authorities arrest seven sex offenders using MySpace data

Texas authorities arrest seven sex offenders using MySpace data
Social networking website, MySpace.com aided the attorney general's office in Texas when its decision to reveal the identity of seven sex offenders led to their arrests for breaking parole or probation rules.

The News Corp-owned website identified sex offenders making use of its service by hiring background verification firm, Sentinel Safe Tech and removed the offending profiles. However it showed some hesitancy when asked by authorities in several states to reveal the identities of the sex offenders to the police authorities.

The Texas attorney general's office said that police officials carried out the arrests over a period of two weeks and all the seven individuals had been previously convicted of sexually assaulting victims in an age range of 13 and 21 years old. Some of the victims were as young as 4 years old.

The attorney general's office went on to say that six of the offenders were arrested since their parole rules do not allow them to use the Internet, while the seventh offender was arrested since he had not registered as a sex offender with the local authorities.

The Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott released a statement stating, "Texans will not tolerate criminals who prey on our children. These convicted sex predators established online identities on a Web site that is popular with teenagers and children."