Tagged - Child Safety

Child Safety

Initially targeted at US teens, Tagged was opened to users worldwide aged 13 and older in October 2006 and still maintains security measures for users under 18. Users over 16 and the public cannot view the profiles of 13 and 14 year olds, and profiles for 15–16 year olds are private to the public and to users over 18. The only way to add teens as friends is by knowing the email address or surnames to request the friendship, and the younger user must accept the friendship request. However, the security measures are not entirely successful. In February 2009, a high school teacher was arrested after having sex with a 14 year old girl he met on Tagged. The 32 year old, who was not listed on either state or national sex offender websites, had over 100 female friends below the age of 17.

In December 2009 New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that Tagged and 13 other social networking sites agreed to remove registered sex offenders under the New York Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act. Nevertheless, a 2010 undercover investigation by Cuomo's office claimed that graphic images of children being sexually abused were readily accessible on Tagged. Investigators registered accounts at Tagged and reported inappropriate content to Tagged administrators following procedures described on the site. They found "significant lapses" in Tagged's response to these reports. At a news conference, Cuomo referred to Tagged as "one of the worst social networking sites that we've encountered."