Myspace And Age Verification

MySpace announced yesterday that they were working with attorney generals from 49 states in a “landmark partnership” to “protect children, purge predators and expunge inappropriate content including pornography.” The New York Times story I linked to points out the obvious flaws in this approach, including the ease with which people can get new email addresses, etc.

Connecticut’s attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, seems to be generating most of the quotes. A bit of Googling also reveals that he has been attempting to get similar concepts put into legislation. I wonder who his technical advisers are, because they could be leading him astray. After all, what happens when MySpace still has problems despite Blumenthal’s statements?

The next question is how other online services will respond. Will they implement similar approaches? MySpace is going to hire a contractor to scan their content, which could be an incredibly expensive proposition.