Social networking site MySpace.com is expected to announce the hiring of a chief security officer, Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, a former Justice Department prosecutor who specialized in child exploitation cases, in order that all education, safety, privacy and law enforcement issues for MySpace.com are properly handled. Parents fretting about what their kids are doing online should take some measure of comfort from this.
"Lots and lots of parents want their kids' profiles down," said Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, a nonprofit organization that provides safety and health information. Aftab has worked for years with MySpace and other social networks to design safety guidelines. "But we all need to take a breath and fashion solutions to address the real problem, which is how much information kids are putting online and who are they communicating with online."