The first blog post I wrote on Pulse 2.0 was on September 16, 2006 and it was titled, Facebook Opening for Everyone.  This article had to do with Facebook opening their user base to anyone with an e-mail account and not just exclusively for university students.  An influx of pedophiles and sex offenders took advantage of MySpace and Friendster’s openness and now they would have access to Facebook users.

But not anymore…

Facebook is placing 40 more safeguards to protect their users from sexual predators.  Sex offenders will be banned and contacting users under 18 will have limitations.  There will be task forces in place that verifies user age and identities.  Forty-nine states and Washington D.C. officials have agreed to partner with Facebook to ensure safety measures.  Facebook has over 70 million users and already enacting these safeguards.

“Building a safe and trusted online experience has been part of Facebook from its outset,” stated Chris Kelly, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer. “The attorneys general have shown great leadership in helping to address the critical issue of Internet safety, and we commend them for continuing to set high standards for all players in the online arena.”

Companies offering services on the social network will have to comply with privacy and safety.  Tobacco and alcohol ads will not show up for users too young to purchase those items.  Inappropriate pictures will be removed.  Warning messages will be sent if children send personal information to adults over the site.  And lastly children will be monitored if it is discovered that they are masquerading as adults.

This was a smart move for Facebook.  MySpace’s reputation is tainted for the cases involving pedophilia and murder.  A few days ago, I posted a video of a Saturday Night Live skit parodying MySpace’s infested user-base of predators.  MySpace should follow the same initiative as Facebook in this case.