Two hundred registered Michigan sex offenders were among 7,000 people kicked off the social-networking site MySpace.com, says the Detroit Free Press, quoting Attorney General Mike Cox. Of the 200, 28 were on probation or parole, including four who had been ordered not to use a computer. The discovery should be a cautionary tale for parents, he said. Including screen names like “Felonious Thoughts,” “Isellcracktomidgets,” “boyheartboy” and others not suitable for printing in a family newspaper, the list caught the attention of state officials. Cox provided a copy of the state’s sex offender registry to MySpace, and it came up with the matches.
The removal of 200 people is “not going to stop folks from making false identities,” said a spokesman for Cox. “We’ll still be using undercover agents online.” Thomas Lazar, an attorney who represents dozens of sex offenders who have had their convictions set aside or expunged because the offense occurred when they were younger than 17, hopes the state will tweak its law to take into account people like his clients, who no longer have a sex offense on their record but will be on the registry for at least 25 years.
Link: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/NEWS06/706220404