Kevin Poulsen of Wired has a great article that shows the result of a PERL script he created to cross reference MySpace profiles with the National Sex Offender Public Registry. He’s idetified over 700 known sex offenders already and assisted in one arrest. Just another example how free software (PERL) can enhance and protect our lives.

In May, I began an automated search of MySpace’s membership rolls for 385,932 registered sex offenders in 46 states, mined from the Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Registry website — a gateway to the state-run Megan’s Law websites around the country. I searched on first and last names, limiting results to a five mile radius of the offender’s registered ZIP code.

The code swept in a vast number of false or unverifiable matches. Working part time for several months, I sifted the data and manually compared photographs, ages and other data, until enhanced privacy features MySpace launched in June began frustrating the analysis.

I imagine it wouldn’t take much work to do some rudimentary facial recognition to aid in moving higher percentage matches to the top of the pile for additional verification.

Today’s investigatory target, 39-year-old Andrew Lubrano, has been less careful, and now he faces his fourth arrest for a sex crime. Lubrano was sentenced to three years probation in 1987 for sexual abuse against a 7-year-old boy, according to police. In 1988, he got another probation term for second-degree sex abuse. In 1995, he earned a 3 to 9 year prison term for sexually abusing two boys he’d been babysitting, one 11, the other 9.

The parole board turned Lubrano down three times, and he was cut loose in September 2004 largely unsupervised, having served every day of his nine-year max. By November 2005 he was on MySpace, making friends.

But I thought these people could be rehabilitated? Hmmm, guess not…

Five of the sex offenders are listed as “absconded” — one of those still logs in regularly. Others are listed as “in custody,” and last logged into MySpace shortly before their arrest. Some are fresh out of custody. One North Carolina user went to prison in 1999 for rape and “indecent liberties with a minor.” When he got out this year, he was on MySpace within two months — though so far his only friend is MySpace’s Tom.

Maybe those absconded ones can be tracked down now. I’d also be interested to know if the ones in custody committed any crimes against their MySpace “friends”. The best part is, MySpace said none of this could be done. Not only has it been done, it’s been done with no cooperation from MySpace or any Law Enforcement agency (apart from providing the websites). This should be looked up as a disgrace to MySpace for not even attempting to combat a major issue with “social networking” sites.

Clearly loading up spyware and adware on a customer’s computer through browser exploits is more important than protecting their users. That’s not to say that the customers or parents don’t bear some responsibility, but it should stand to reason that people have to right to exist with out being targeted for a crime. When you provide a service that can clearly be used as a tool to commit a crime you have a moral obligation to do everything within reason to insure the safety of your customers.

By not responding to initial requests to scan for known sex offenders, MySpace has put profits above customers and I find that irresponsible. Of course, NewsCorp will probably bear the brunt of this criticism even though this problem existed well before they purchased MySpace. However this type of disregard should come as no surprise since MySpace was really founded by a known SPAM organization (ResponseBase/eUniverse/Intermix Media).

In any event, please check out the article.

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