|
Tuesday, March 18 2008 @ 08:36 AM Central Daylight Time
|
Popular social network site MySpace said yesterday that it has agreed with 49 states and the District to adopt new online safety standards to better protect children from sexual predators.
MySpace, a unit of News Corp., agreed to add safety features to its Web site, including better technology to screen out underage users, and to develop age and identity verification technology. The accord was negotiated with the attorneys general of the 49 states and the District.
MySpace and Facebook have come under attack by regulators for not doing enough to police their sites to shield minors from predators. The states began to investigate the sites' operations more than a year ago, and several subpoenas were sent to MySpace over the matter.
"It is a milestone agreement because it can lead to an industry gold standard for social networking safety," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in an interview. "It also opens a new frontier to explore and develop better technology to protect kids."
Texas is the only state not included in yesterday's agreement, according to Blumenthal. Blumenthal said the states would ask all social networking sites to adopt the code. MySpace encouraged others to follow suit.
Vanessa Arellano Doctor
http://conbuzz.com
|
|
