NEW YORK—MySpace, ranked as one of the top ten websites in terms of traffic and arguably the top social networking content site, has signed a deal with 49 U.S. states on new safeguards to protect young children online.
The safeguards aim to protect young children from sexual predators online. The move comes after mounting pressure from law enforcement agencies as well as concerned parents who wanted the social networking giant to take more responsibility in protecting youth online.
MySpace has promised to find better ways to verify users' ages. It has also agreed to make the online profiles of anyone under 16 years of age private by default.
MySpace is also reportedly looking into allowing parents to submit the e-mail addresses of their children to bar them from using the social networking site.
Texas held out on the MySpace agreement, calling the agreement "misleading". Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in a letter to MySpace's CEO, said "We are concerned that our signing the joint statement would be misperceived as an endorsement of the inadequate safety measures."
MySpace, owned by Murdoch's News Corp, claims to have 200 million users worldwide. It has been among the top five websites worldwide in terms of website traffic.
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