MySpace, the popular social networking site, has agreed to a broad set of guidelines with 49 US states aimed at protecting younger users of the Internet.

The Attorneys General, the legal advisors to the US government and states, praised MySpace for its efforts in improving online safety and called on other social networking sites to rethink their guidelines so that they are at least on par with MySpace in terms of protection and privacy.

As part of the agreement, MySpace plans to develop an e-mail registry system for the 110 million global users that allow parents to prevent their children from creating profiles on the site. MySpace will also implement a default profile setting for 16-17 year users so that they can only be contacted by people known to them, reducing the risk of others viewing their profile and contacting them.

"This is a great first step toward protecting children and ending the era of the Wild West on the Internet," said Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann at a news conference announcing the agreement.

The core concern from the Attorneys General was whether MySpace had the technology that would be able to protect it younger users. The methods MySpace uses in order to meet this goal will come under scrutiny by a specially assigned taskforce which will report its findings at the end of 2008.

"We thank the Attorneys General for a thoughtful and constructive conversation on Internet safety. This is an industry-wide challenge and we must all work together to create a safer Internet. The Principles we have adopted set forth what the industry needs to strive towards to provide a safer online experience for teens and we look forward to sharing our ongoing safety innovations with other companies," said Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer of MySpace.

The NSPCC has welcomed this development and hopes that the UK’s own guidelines released later this year will follow suit.

NSPCC policy advisor Zoe Hilton said: "The NSPCC believes that social networking sites should employ measures which can help keep children safe, such as screening children’s profiles to make them private by default and providing information throughout their sites about safety, particularly when adding contacts or posting photos.  The NSPCC also wants sites in the UK to explore ways of blocking access to registered sex offenders and developing better age verification procedures."

The Principles of Social Networking - the guidelines set by the agreement, are as follows:

Site Design and Functionality
As part of the guidelines, MySpace will review every single image and video uploaded onto the site. It has already implemented many of the suggestions in this category - such as deleting registered sex offenders from the network.

Education and Tools for Parents, Educators and Children
MySpace will develop tools and materials that will educate parents about the social networking site and has reviewed how it communicates with users who complain on the site.

Law Enforcement Cooperation
MySpace will work closely with the government in order to enhance the ability of law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute Internet crimes.

Online Safety Task Force
An industry-wide Internet Safety Technical Task Force will develop online safety tools, exploring all new technologies that will enhance the safety of users.