Facebook: We're booting sex offenders, too!

Saddened that MySpace is getting all the press about booting sex offenders from its network, Facebook is getting into the game, too. The company recently announced that it had canceled the accounts of 5,585 convicted sex offenders since May of last year.

It sounds like a lot, but that's a tiny number compared to the site's 175 million active members, and it pales in comparison to the 90,000 sex offenders ejected from MySpace.

Facebook says it used user reports and local law enforcement agencies to track down the ex-cons, who are generally prohibited from using such services as a condition of their release, since minors are allowed on the sites.

Facebook says that in addition to axing the accounts it finds, it's also looking at ways to prevent sex offenders from registering for the service from the start, and has pitched a "real-time system cross-checking available outlets" to block them from the get-go.

Social networking sites have also put limits on the ability of older users to even see the profiles of users under the age of 18 -- which must explain why I couldn't find my cousin's profile in a Facebook search yesterday. Does this strike anyone else as overkill? Will parents be unable to find their own kids on Facebook? Weird.