Last week, we posted an article about MySpace and how 6 states’ Attorneys Generals released a letter to MySpace demanding the site take responsibility for sexual offenders.
Well MySpace has agreed to give state authorities details about registered sex offenders known to have been users. The decision, announced yesterday, resolves last week’s standoff as originally News Corp. refused to turn over the data because law enforcement officials hadn’t followed the required legal process.
What do rulings like this mean for web 2.0 community sites? Sites like Myspace, Digg, Friendster are all run by the community. The community dictates what should and shouldn’t be done in their playground. As we saw a couple of weeks ago with Digg, anytime you get in the way of a community, you are taking the risk that they will retaliate. You can read a brief post on this titled “The Community Conundrum” at Fred Wilson’s blog, a partner at Union Square Ventures.
I guess the question comes down to “is it the responsibility of sites like MySpace to police their community and if so, at what point do they cross the line?” Yes, community driven sites should make every attempt to limit bad behavior. But what about obtaining parental permission? Or other control mechanisms? Is that going too far? Should the responsibility of parenting fall on MySpace because they chose to play in this arena? More importantly, how will this impact web 2.0 in the future?
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