Meat-market cleanup

One of my 10 Internet predictions for 2006 was a "meat-market cleanup" or "social-network crackdown." When I wrote this list on Dec. 28, 2005, I received a number of responses from those who disagreed. Well, looks like that prediction is coming true. Earlier this week, News Corp hired a security officer - Hemanshu Nigam - to police the largest social network on the Web, MySpace.

This is what I wrote last year: "Because of rising concerns that social-networking sites allow people to disguise themselves, and potentially harm unsuspecting members, there will be a social-network crackdown. As part of this, there will be new attempts to monitor members and to make sure that children don't gain access to these virtual meat markets."

MySpace undoubtedly needs a watchdog. It's inevitable that something unfortunate will happen in the virtual world. Earlier this week, I wrote about how far more public we've become because of the benefits received from sharing information. Someone will take advantage of that information, I'm sure. Until that perceived threat of danger becomes a reality, people will continue to share freely and abundantly.

Read my Net Sense on MarketWatch: Our privacy in exchange for...