When the Disease Is Also the Cure

A lot of people have been worried lately that MySpace has become a playground for sexual predators. And a lot of these worried people blame the technology itself for affording sexual predators an opportunity they might not otherwise have. As is often the case with a new, scary technology, an even newer version of that technology turns out to be an antidote. That, at least, is the idea behind the MySpace Guardian toolbar: “Users can search a database of registered sex offenders in a selected radius around their location or by name, alias, height, age and any combination thereof. The result is a display of photos of the registered sex offenders and other pertinent information. Users can also notify authorities directly form the toolbar if they suspect that they have been contacted by a sexual predator.” (Hat tip: Mary Johnson)