Friday, January 18, 2008

Myspace security theater

http://postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?a=323478&z=19

Myspace has reached a deal with 49 states to increase security in regards to children.

Let's examine the new security arrangements.

Among other measures, MySpace agreed to:

* Allow parents to submit children's e-mail addresses to MySpace to prevent anyone from misusing the addresses to set up profiles.

This will work, as long as the kid has never heard of Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, all provider of anonymous email addresses.

* Make the default setting "private" for 16- and 17-year-old users.

Making it harder for parents to monitor their kids. The kids, on the other hand, will still be able to add any punk, perv, or thug to their "Friends" list that they please.

* Respond within 72 hours to complaints about inappropriate content and devote more staff and resources to classify photographs and discussion groups.

Making who safer, exactly? Remove proof after the damage is done?

* Strengthen software to find underage users.

Software to identify people who say "I lied about being 18. I'm really 12, wanna cyber?"?

* Create a high school section for users under 18 years old.

I'm sure every kid out there will use this, instead of lying about their age.

Security Theater: Security theater are security countermeasures that provide the feeling of security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.

No comments: