The high priestess of internet friendship

In May a US Republican senator, Michael Fitzpatrick, proposed the Deleting Online Predators Act, which (if passed) would in effect shut down access to social networks in US public schools and libraries. The sites, however, want to head off any backlash and are taking the online dangers seriously. Bebo hired Rachel O’Connell, an expert on internet safety from the University of Central Lancashire, as its chief safety officer and she has taken steps to stop online bullying. On MySpace, the profiles of 14- and 15-year-olds are automatically set to private so that only people on their list of friends can view them or send them messages. (Boyd says many children override this setting or register as 18 or over. But MySpace says it has electronic algorithms that can detect if a child is not telling the truth.) Users under 18 can’t view content designated “mature”. MySpace hired Hemanshu Nigam, a former US federal prosecutor, who heads a team of 150 that continuously monitors the site for hate speech, offensive material or nudity. He removes more than 30,000 under-age profiles a week. Quite a bit of bare flesh still gets through but Nigam insists there is no pornography.