The popular social networking website MySpace has agreed to implement new efforts to protect children from online sexual predators and bullies, but the announcement contained few details on how exactly they planned to carry out the improvements. The kink in the plan is how to develop an age-verification program that itself doesn't put children in harm's way.
The announcement of the agreement between MySpace and 49 state attorneys general will create a task force to watch over the operations of the site.


Other social-networking sites, such as Facebook, will be invited to participate.

Critics of the plan say that any age-verification technology is suspect because predators can circumvent the restrictions. Also, in order to have an age-verification system it would require the development of a database that could be vulnerable to hackers.

Texas was the only state not to join the agreement with MySpace, because Attorney General Greg Abbott said the plan did not call for an age-verification system.

"We do not believe that MySpace.com - or any other social-networking site - can adequately protect minors without an age-verification system," Abbott told reporters. "We are concerned that our signing the joint statement would be misperceived as an endorsement of the inadequate safety measures."

See Also:
MySpace Agrees to New Safety Measures

Earlier Articles:
MySpace Removed 29,000 Sex Offenders' Pages
MySpace to Share Info on Sex Offenders
MySpace Withholds Names of Sex Offenders
MySpace Safety Effort Called 'Window Dressing'

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