Video-sharing sites under fire from all sides

E-Brief News reports that the US military said it will begin blocking access \'worldwide\' to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks. The memo sent by General BB Bell, the US Forces Korea commander, states that soldiers cannot access the sites through military networks, the only lines of communication open to many on active duty in foreign countries. Bell cited bandwidth as the primary reason, but no gaming sites are on the list. All of the sites do allow members to share personal information with family and friends. Information Week reports that the Defence Department representatives in the US and military officials in Iraq said there was no new code of conduct or orders pertaining to blogs, Web sites, and videos. However, commanders in war zones did warn soldiers to make sure that the images they sent over the Internet did not provide insurgents with information about tactics, techniques or procedures. ABC News reports that a Pentagon spokesperson said this decision is strictly about preserving Internet bandwidth on work computers and not about editorial content. Chron.com reports that Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube for some time, and the army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis. If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired Magazine. Full Information Week report Full ABC News report Full Chron.com report

Meanwhile, thousands of convicted sex offenders have registered for profiles on social networking Web site MySpace, posing a risk to children who are among the site\'s most avid users, eight US Attorneys-General said this week. Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal and counterparts in seven states called on the company, to hand over the offenders\' names and addresses. Sources told the Attorneys-General that MySpace had discovered thousands of sex offenders on its site in an internal investigation, Blumenthal said. According to a report on the IoL site, children\'s advocates say they fear that young teens, who use such sites to socialise, fail to grasp the risks involved in meeting people over the Internet. \'People should be notified if these offenders have been in touch with them or their children,\' said Judi Westberg-Warren, president of Web Wise Kids, a California-based non-profit Internet safety organisation. CNET News reports that MySpace was sued in January by the parents of several teenage girls who were allegedly assaulted by adults whom they met on the site. While MySpace has a history of compliance with investigations like these, and offers some safety measures of its own, many lawmakers remain critical that it\'s still not doing enough. The New York Times reports that MySpace\'s chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, reiterated the site’s support for state and federal laws that would require convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses and instant messenger accounts with authorities. He said such a step would aid the company in keeping sex offenders off the service. Currently Virginia and Kentucky are among the few states with such laws. Full report on the IoL site Full CNET News report Full report in The New York Times

In other developments relating to video-sharing sites, Google has agreed to block four video clips on its YouTube Web site that the government of Thailand said insulted its king. But in a letter to the Minister of Communications, Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, Google said two other videos that had angered Thailand’s military government would stay on the site, because they did not break laws against offending the monarchy. The New York Times reports that Sitthichai, who threatened to sue Google, said he no longer wished to take legal action, but he did not say whether the company’s concession was enough for him to unblock YouTube for Thai Internet surfers. Full report in The New York Times