BeNetSafe Adds Friendster to Watch List

BeNetSafe has its eye on Friendster.

The service that tracks profiles on social-networking sites has added Friendster to its parental search and reporting service. The startup, founded by two dads concerned about their kids' safety on the Internet, launched in August as a profile-tracking service for MySpace. Xanga was added in September. Now, it markets itself to parents as the only online service to monitor three of the most popular social-networking sites among teens and young adults.

BeNetSafe says 7 out of 10 parents who try out the service think their kids were not on MySpace, but find out they are. The service tracks whether a profile is public or private, contains photos, or shows personal information.

Parents can access reports via the web or through weekly or monthly email messages. The reports link directly to kids' profiles and any photos they may have posted.

With the news going in their favor—Xanga's $1 million fine and former Republican Congressman Mark Foley's inappropriate instant messages to underage pages—BeNetSafe has upped its prices since the August launch to $19.95 a month and $79.95 a year. Jason Kirschner, a company spokesman, said the company staffed up quickly to bring Friendster on six months ahead of schedule. Look for another big-name social network to be added soon, he said.