The social networking site MySpace announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement with attorneys general from 49 states and the District of Columbia on measures designed to improve the safety of teenagers not only on its popular social networking site, but on the World Wide Web in general.

In a press conference in New York, MySpace executives and representatives of the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking released a Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Sites Safety. The document was introduced by Hemanshu Nigam, Chief shield Officer for MySpace and Fox Interactive Media, and Attorneys General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, both of whom have been aggressive in pushing MySpace to identify and block sexual predators from participating in MySpace.

“We thank the attorneys general for a thoughtful and constructive conversation on Net safety,” Nigam said. “This is an industry-wide challenge and we must all work together to create a safer Net.

The principles we have adopted set forth what the industry needs to strive towards to supply a safer online experience for teens and we look forward to sharing our ongoing safety innovations with other companies.”

Principles of Social Networking Sites

MySpace and the Multi-State Working Group said that they have identified four categories of principles to guide the protection of children on social networking sites: site design and functionality; education and tools for parents, educators and children; law enforcement cooperation; and an online safety task force.

While many details of the social networking site’s safety measure remain undefined, MySpace said it intends to produce profiles of 14- and 15-year-olds automatically private. MySpace will additionally explore the creation of a “children’s e-mail registry,” and plans to develop online safety tools for social networking, including improved age verification.

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