Brazilian criminals using Orkut?

A stunning 74% of Orkut’s 14 million users say they are from Brazil, according to a Reuters news story. Unfortunately for Google, which started the free social networking service, an alarming amount of child pornography has surfaced on the site, and Brazilian authorities have asked Google Brazil to intervene to prevent the use of the site for criminal activities. It’s a PR headache that Google probably didn’t need right now. Having worked on free community websites myself in previous internet jobs, I feel for Google. Policing those sites from smut and potentially illegal activity is a serious, full-time endeavour.