Facebook, MySpace ban New York sex offenders

Facebook and MySpace have closed the accounts of 3,533 convicted sex offenders in New York state under a law combating online predators, officials said Tuesday.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo urged other social networking sites to follow the lead and apply the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP), a law passed last year that requires convicted sex offenders to list all their online addresses with the state.

"Facebook and MySpace are successfully using e-STOP to help make the Internet safer, and it's time for all social networking sites to do their part to keep others from being senselessly victimized," Cuomo told reporters.

Facebook booted 3,410 accounts linked to 2,782 registered sex offenders from its service, while MySpace shut down 1,975 accounts linked to 1,796 offenders in recent weeks. There was overlap because some of them had accounts with both networking sites.

Some 8,100 registered sex offenders have provided their online details to the state, which then supplies social networking sites with the information.

(c) 2009 AFP