BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Popular social networking Web site MySpace detected and deleted 29,000 convicted sex offenders on its service, more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago, media reported Wednesday.

    "We're pleased that we've successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites follow our lead," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement.

    The service has come under attack over the past year after some of its young members fell prey to adult predators posing as minors. The families of several teenage girls sexually assaulted by MySpace members sued the service in January for failing to safeguard its young members.

    "The exploding epidemic of sex offender profiles on MySpace -- 29,000 and counting -- screams for action," U.S. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.

    Blumenthal, who led a coalition of state authorities to lobby MySpace for more stringent safeguards for minors, and other state AGs have demanded the service begin verifying a user's age and require parental permission for minors.

    MySpace said in May it had deleted about 7,000 user profiles that belonged to convicted offenders. MySpace attracts about 60 million unique visitors monthly in the United States. The minimum age to register on MySpace is 14.

    (Agencies)