Myspace is trying to figure out what to do about adults preying on minors on Myspace.  EKR has some comments on the overall ineffectiveness of the approach.

My thoughts:

• One of the things I’ve learned in my time is that a fairly low barrier still seems to keep a lot of people “well behaved”.   There’s no logical reason for it, but people still respect short fences.
• I am reminded of Orson Scott Card’s masterpiece - Ender’s Game, and the “hobby” developed by his brother and sister.  Do we want more control?
• I’ve played quite a bit of Dungeons and Dragons Online over the last few months, and I’ve played with a number of kids (Based on their voices in voice chat), and a number of people who were probably kids based on their typing.  Even if kids pretend to be adults, there are still “tells” that indicate they are kids.  Perhaps a “I think this account is a kid” button reputation system might be in order
• As difficult as it may be to pull off, the “right” solution is to have a good relationship with your kids so you know what is going on in their lives.