[AnnonUSA]

New Jersey Debuts Web Safety Icon

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Users of six popular Internet social networking sites will soon be able to easily report sexual predators and other abuses with a new online icon.
The "Report Abuse!'' icon will be displayed on every Web page and will lead to a drop-down menu in which users can check the type of threat they've experienced -- sexual predator, suicide threat, graphic violence, nudity, cyber-bullying and other choices.
Participating sites must agree to do a timely investigation of every complaint and to take appropriate action based on the results.
The icon was developed jointly by the sites and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office. It will be visible within 90 days.
Attorney General Anne Milgram announced the Internet safety partnership Thursday, saying she hoped it would spark a new national standard in how online threats and violence get reported and investigated.
"Although it may sound like common sense to you, this really is revolutionary,'' said Milgram. "What we're doing here is replacing very hard to find links with a meaningful, easily identifiable icon that we hope will become something like a stop sign.''
Milgram said she believed New Jersey was the first state to work directly with social networking sites to develop such a reporting system.
The effort came after the recent discovery that 29,000 sexual predators had accounts with MySpace.com. After being subpoenaed, the site agreed to work with attorneys general in several states to identify and rid the site of convicted pedophiles.
There were 268 registered sex offenders in New Jersey using MySpace that had logged in a total of 51,000 times, and Milgram said half were on parole or probation at the time.
The Report Abuse! icon will be featured on myYearbook.com, BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com, AsianAve.com, Faithbase.com and GLEE.com.
Undercover investigators trolling the sites for possible problems found a host of difficulties, including hard-to-find abuse-reporting icons and complaints that went unheeded, Milgram said. Some are simply not monitored.
Milgram has invited the two best-known sites, MySpace and Facebook, to join the initiative. She also sent letters on Thursday to the attorneys general in the other 49 states asking them to participate in the program or create their own.