Facebook caught up in sex offender probe

If things were not bad enough for social networking sites, Facebook is now caught up in the sex offender using social networking row that has plagued MySpace. Authorities are reporting that they have found inappropriate content and images on Facebook.

NEW YORK - Connecticut investigators are looking into “three or more” cases of convicted sex offenders who had registered on Facebook, a fast-growing social networking Web site, the New York Times reported on Monday. State investigators had “also found inappropriate images and content” on the service, the Times reported, citing Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Source: MSNBC

Times are getting hard for social networking sites, and their users. It is bad enough that you can stumble over content that is not what you were looking for, and stuff that can get you thrown in jail. Or download the Simpsons movie only to find out it is not really the Simpsons movie, or anything else that relies on a user uploading content and misrepresenting that content. Add the idea that people are using social networks for exactly that, social networking, but for something that is proscribed fairly universally world wide.

No surprise that people are showing up on Facebook looking for things, or finding things that are going to get everyone in trouble, Facebook is at least doing something about it, the whole profile taken down within 72 hours upon notification. Although it will be interesting to see if they choose to do something more proactive like MySpace. Either way, the new reality is that sex predators are using social networks, for whatever reason, and other people who use social networks should really pay attention to that fact.