MySpace is expected to announce today the addition of new restrictions limiting the ways adults contact younger members. Though coming just days after a lawsuit was filed by a 14-year-old girl, MySpace says the restrictions have been in the works for some time.
The new restrictions, to be implemented next week, will disallow 18 and over MySpacers from requesting placement on the friends list of users under 16 unless they already have their email address or full name. MySpace already requires that users be at least 14 to sign up for an account.
Only partial profiles are viewable if the user is under 16 unless the user places the visitor on their friends list. The company says the option to make profiles partial will be extended to all users. Partial profiles had been limited to just those under 16.
Critics are still unconvinced the social networking site is going far enough for age verification. There still is no meaningful way to prove how old a user is, aside from vaguely described algorithms searching for semantic clues that a user is under 14 and an internal tip system.
This still leaves the system open to gaming as the too young can lie to be older and the too old can lie to be younger. CNet quotes Parry Aftab, the executive director of WiredSafety:
“Kids that want to do the open stuff will set their ages to 16,” she said. MySpace does not verify users’ ages.
But Aftab praised the change that allows anyone to have a private profile. “I know adults who set their age to be 14,” she said, “not to lure kids, but because they want their profiles private.
