AUGUSTA – Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe has subpoenaed the records of MySpace.com in an effort to track down any registered sex offenders in Maine who may have been using the Web site. His action is part of a nationwide effort.

Superior Court “Justice [Nancy] Mills approved our request and I have asked for the records today,” Rowe said in an interview Tuesday. “When we get the information, we will look at the records and see if they are on probation, if they are in violation of any conditions, and take the action that is needed.”

MySpace.com is a popular social networking Web site that has approximately 175 million individual user accounts. Many of the accounts are used by children.

Rowe said any Maine sex offender using the site could face an array of charges, including violation of probation restrictions. Of the 2,775 active registered sex offenders in Maine, 248 are subject to conditions of release that prohibit them from having any contact with children.

In an affidavit filed in Kennebec County Superior Court, Seth Blodgett, a detective with the Attorney General’s Office, said Maine has been involved in a multistate effort to identify convicted sex offenders who have been using MySpace.com. He noted that the Web site announced in May it had identified approximately 7,000 user profiles which matched sex offender databases maintained by the states or the federal government.

“Based on my education, training and experience, and the facts set forth in this affidavit, there are reasonable grounds to believe, and I do believe, that the Internet services provided by MySpace.com are being used for, or to further, an unlawful purpose,” Blodgett said in his sworn statement. “Namely, as a means for registered sex offenders in Maine to have contact or communication with minor children in violation of terms of probation or supervised release, or for the purpose of solicitation of a child by computer to commit a prohibited act.”

Assistant Attorney General Carlos Diaz has been the lead attorney on the issue for Rowe. He said there is no way to estimate how many Maine sex offenders have used their own names in creating profiles on MySpace.com, although based on what other states have found he expects there will be some.

“The records that MySpace turned over to the North Carolina attorney general had 245 registered sex offenders from that state with profiles,” he said.

Diaz said the AG’s office will work with the Department of Corrections and the eight district attorney’s offices to take any appropriate legal action against a Maine sex offender found in the MySpace.com records.

Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, praised the effort to get the names of sex offenders who have been identified by MySpace.com. But he is also concerned that so few sex offenders on the state registry are prohibited from having any contact with children.

“I think that is something we are going to need to look at as we review the registry and the sex offender laws this year,” he said.

Diamond said he was also surprised at the number of offenders who had used their own names or photos when creating a user profile among those identified in other states.

“These aren’t going to be the people who are very careful and meticulous about not posting any identifying information,” Diaz said. He said MySpace.Com had contracted with a private firm last December to identify any clearly identifiable sex offenders with user accounts so those accounts could be closed.

“But there is absolutely nothing to stop those 7,000 people who were found to be sex offenders with profiles on MySpace from immediately signing back up as someone else,” said Assistant Attorney General Jessica Maurer, who is also working on the investigation. “We are only catching the low-hanging fruit here.”

Diaz agreed but said the case should send a clear message to parents that they need to be involved with their children’s use of the Internet. He said law enforcement can catch the sex offender, but it is up to parents to take steps to prevent the improper contact on the Web in the first place.

“Even if this never leads to one criminal prosecution in Maine, it should highlight the fact that there are sexual predators on the Internet that are as prevalent as our children are,” Diaz said.

The subpoena demands all identifying information, including e-mail addresses, that MySpace.com has on Maine sex offenders it has identified as having user accounts.

MySpace.com is owned by California-based Fox Interactive Media Inc.