I found something ironic in this story on MSN. MySpace, made popular through the ease of connecting to other people and related “hype”, is apparently telling people not to listen to what they hear on the street.

The popular Web hangout MySpace.com is as safe as anyplace in the offline world despite recent reports that sexual predators may be using it to find and lure young victims, the company’s CEO said.

“If you go to the mall and start talking to strange people, bad things can happen,” Chris DeWolfe, the site’s co-founder, said in a telephone interview. “You’ve got to take the same precautions on the Internet.”

I am not a PR expert, but from a security perspective I find this position odd. After all, it comes from a company that provides a platoform to people that enables them to represent themselves as someone they are not.

In other words, the analogy could be translated into “if we provide a forum that strips away all the controls you might use in a mall to protect yourself (e.g. physical appearance), and don’t give you anything to protect yourself (e.g. we have no alternative checks and controls to suggest or provide to you), you can’t expect us to be liable for your behavior.” And that doesn’t sound right for a reason. The next question to DeWolfe should have been “what exactly do you mean by ‘same’ precautions?”