SANTA MONICA, Calif.- –Fox Interactive Media (FIM), parent of MySpace.com, has appointed industry veteran Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam to oversee safety, education and privacy programs and law enforcement affairs for MySpace, as well as the growing network of FIM properties. Nigam, who currently serves as Director of Consumer Security Outreach & Child Safe Computing at the Microsoft Corporation, brings more than 15 years of experience in online safety for private industry and law enforcement, including serving as a Federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the US Department of Justice, an advisor to a Congressional commission on online child safety, and an advisor to the White House on cyberstalking. Nigam’s appointment is effective May 1, 2006.
“Hemu is a proven leader in online safety and security. We are fortunate to have him join MySpace, help us educate the public and protect our members’ safety and privacy,” said Chris DeWolfe, CEO of MySpace. “MySpace has always been committed to an industry leading role in internet safety and will continue to partner with all stakeholders including parents, educators, law enforcement and safety groups.”
“Fox Interactive Media and its network of properties will greatly benefit from Hemu’s experience, stature among law enforcement and private industry leaders, and strategic vision,” said Ross Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media. “We look forward to working with Hemu as we continue in our commitment to provide a leadership role in developing industry standards that safeguard our growing community of members.”
Nigam’s role at Microsoft has been to lead the team within Microsoft’s Security Technology Unit responsible for driving consumer security outreach and child safe computing strategies. Nigam oversees outreach and partnership development with government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in online consumer safety and security. He led the cross-company child safety initiative launched to build a holistic approach to child safe computing throughout Microsoft products, services and programs. Nigam also served as a spokesperson on virus, hacking and spam enforcement outreach, and on child online protection and law enforcement outreach.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Nigam served as vice president of Worldwide Internet Enforcement at the Motion Picture Association of America. There he built and oversaw the global strategy to combat online motion picture piracy for the seven major Hollywood studios.
In his prior role, he was a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, in Washington, D.C. where he specialized in child pornography, child predator and child trafficking and computer crime cases nationwide. Nigam also served on the Vice President’s Committee on CyberStalking and was a legal advisor to the COPA Commission (created by the Child Online Protection Act, the landmark 1998 piece of legislation defending children’s safety online, to advise Congress). He was also the law enforcement liaison to ISPs and filtering technology companies on child online protection issues.
The appointment demonstrates MySpace’s ongoing commitment to protecting the safety of its more than 68 million members. Since the inception of the site, the company has devoted extensive resources towards these important issues and has created a deep arsenal of programs and services deployed on the site to maintain the security of its members including:
— Limiting use of the site to members who are at least 14 years of age and providing special protections to members who are under 16 so their personal information cannot be accessed by persons they do not know.
— Requiring all new members under 18 years of age to review safety tips prior to registration.
— Deleting profiles of under-age members. Since the inception of the site, the company has deleted more than 250,000 underage profiles.
— Reviewing every image hosted directly to the site – more than 2 million every day.
— Members often link to images hosted on other sites from their MySpace pages and MySpace is working with the largest image hosting companies on the web to ensure that these companies are monitoring the photos and adhering to MySpace’s policies.
— Limiting access to certain discussion groups with adult themes to members 18 years of age and over.
— Providing parents links to free filtering software to guide their child’s Internet activities and access.
— Providing mechanisms, including links next to every photo hosted on the site, so members can report inappropriate content to MySpace.
— Working with hundreds of law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels to address potential issues quickly and effectively.
— Offering revised safety information and tips from every page of the website for both users and parents.
— Partnering with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Advertising Council, as announced recently, to promote online safety through a series of national public service advertisements — the largest single campaign ever run on behalf of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.