Sunday, February 03, 2008

CSAM & Predators - Requiring credit cards for social networking site subscriptions

August 14, 2006

Should social networking sites like Myspace, Xanga, Friendster, Facebook, Hi5, FacetheJury and others require applicants to subscribe by entering information from a credit card?

The proprietors of social networking sites have difficulty preventing minors from improperly joining the sites. Many young people have been victimized by predators who roam the sites. Much of the responsibility falls upon parents who fail to monitor their children's Internet activity but increasingly, the industry is being called upon to place better controls on the use of social networking sites.

The idea of requiring credit card information from applicant/subscribers to social networking sites is controversial yet promising.

Credit cards have been suggested as a method of age-verification for subscribers to the sites. Critics argue that credit cards are not a foolproof method of age verification. While I agree that credit cards are not the best method of age verification I believe that requiring prospective subscribers to social networking sites to enter credit card information would be helpful in three other important ways:

1. As a deterrent to young people who often subscribe without the knowledge of their parents.

2. As a deterrent to criminals who might be less likely to offend knowing that their identity might be traced through the credit card information they entered.

3. As a lead for law enforcement to follow-up in order to trace back to a criminal when unlawful activity occurs.

Although the use of credit cards may not be a proof-positive means of age verification it would likely be a deterrent to those kids who would otherwise sneak onto a site and join without their parents knowledge. If the sites require the entry of a credit card number to subscribe, the child or teen has one extra hurdle to jump before joining a site without parental consent, and a parent might notice the charge on his or her credit card statement and follow-up by examining the childs Internet activity.

Criminals who intend to use the sites for unlawful purposes might be slowed if they were required to enter a credit card number knowing that the number might be traced later by law enforcement officials. Yes, some criminals will use stolen credit card numbers, but others will not.

Credit card information would give law enforcement an additional lead to trace through subpoena and search warrant in order to identify persons who facilitate or commit crimes through social networking sites.

Requiring a credit card to subscribe to a social networking site would not be perfect nor foolproof but I believe it would be better than the present free-for-all practices.

Unrelated to the present issue involving social networking sites, a couple years ago, in the disturbing world of Internet child pornography, we saw a slowing in reports of child pornography from one major Internet service provider when it began to require that subscribers pay a small annual fee for its "groups" service. It may be that users simply moved to the other free "groups" services to share and traffic child pornography, but it is also possible that the chance of being traced drove some of the child pornography traffickers away from the ISP that began charging a small fee. If social networking sites were to require users to enter a credit card, perhaps a similar situation would occur.

What are your thoughts?

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