Big bust in little Texas - MySpace sex offenders now face sexual assault in jail
By George Gardner
The Texas Attorney General recently issued a subpoena to MySpace.com, forcing the Internet’s #1 social network to release information on all registered sex offenders who established online member profiles. In a Texas-sized move, seven previously convicted sex offenders have been arrested for violation of their parole in what is being called the nation’s first large-scale crackdown on registered sex offenders using MySpace.
The seven men were apprehended, over a two week period, by Texas authorities; six, of which, were picked up for simply having a MySpace profile, as using the Internet is a direct violation of their parole. The other was reported to have not registered prior convictions with authorities.
Attorney General Greg Abbott could not say as to whether the men tried to contact children through the Internet, but said, ”We wanted to arrest these people as quickly as possible.” This because the seven were convicted of sexual crimes against children, assaulting girls between the ages of 4 and 21.
“We partnered with Sentinel Tech to build this technology to remove registered sex offenders from our site and to ensure that law enforcement could arrest those who were violating their probation or parole,” MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement.
Computers were seized from some of the suspects, while the men have been ordered to be held without bond, awaiting trial.
“Texans will not tolerate criminals who prey on our children,” Attorney General Abbott said in a press release. “These convicted sex predators established online identities on a Web site that is popular with teenagers and children. The Cyber Crimes Unit will continue its aggressive crackdown on sex predators who threaten our kids.”
In an admirable move by Abbott, four videos have been posted on the Attorney General of Texas website, as well as images and details of each assailant. As the saying goes, they do it BIG in Texas.
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