MOUNT VERNON — MySpace.com has begun its efforts to crack down on sex offenders, removing all four of the remaining MySpace.com profiles that were linked to registered Knox County sex offenders.

In December, The News took the Ohio Attorney General’s list of registered Knox County sex offenders and ran the names through MySpace.com’s search tool, looking for user profiles with the same information.

Seven matches were discovered, six male and one female. They shared the exact same names, ages and zip codes as the sex offenders on eSORN. The information obtained in the investigation was passed on to MySpace.com and also turned over to local law enforcement.

As of Friday afternoon, all of the profiles had been removed from the social networking site.

The Knox County Prosecutor’s Office also worked with the county probation office, looking into whether or not any of the seven offenders broke the law by violating computer restrictions that are sometimes added as a condition of probation.

According to the probation office, several offenders who had profiles were on probation. However, none had computer restrictions as part of their probation requirments.

In addition to policing their own site, MySpace has donated its Sentinel Safe technology to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The technology, developed through a partnership between MySpace.com and Sentinel Tech, an identity verification firm, allows the company to compile information from state and federal databases to identify registered sex offenders and block them from using the site.

According to the two companies, the database can also be useful in criminal investigations, providing law enforcement with an easier way to consolidate information from different databases.

“Through this donation, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will have access to the most cutting-edge technology available today to identify non-compliant and registered sex offenders so it can provide better assistance to law enforcement agencies across the nation,” said John Cardillo, chief executive officer for Sentinel Tech, in a written statement. “Sentinel Safe will allow law enforcement, both big and small, the ability to enhance their searches and better track these criminals, making the Internet safer for all.”

Meanwhile, a MySpace safety team is monitoring for convicted sex offenders who are using the site. Once located and confirmed, the team removes the profiles immediately.