US state lawmakers want sites to verify user ages

09.03.2007
Connecticut legislators are pushing a bill that would make it harder for kids and adults to lie about their ages on social networking sites such as MySpace, Xanga and Facebook.

The measure, sponsored by state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, would require those and similar sites to verify the ages of those signing up for their services and force minors to obtain parental consent before posting their profiles. It would also allow parents to access their children's Web pages.

The bill is designed to protect underage children from online predators, Blumenthal said in a statement.

"These sites must verify ages and give parents power to keep their children off these sites," Blumenthal said. "Failing to verify ages means that children are exposed to sexual predators who may be older men lying to seem younger."

He also said he doesn't believe there are technological reasons not to do age verifications. "If we can put a man on the moon -- or invent the Internet -- we can reliably check ages," Blumenthal said.

Under the proposal, sites that fail to verify user ages or obtain parental consent to post profiles of minors could face fines of up to US$5,000 per violation. The bill would also allow individuals to sue social networking sites that fail to take such measures.