New York - News Corporation's (NYSE: NWS) MySpace announced on Monday a joint effort with the Attorneys General of 49 states and the District of Columbia, to adopt a set of principles for social networking site safety, and make changes to its website to protect youth against sexual predators. The announcement from MySpace comes after pressure from several State Attorneys General, which led the company last year to begin searching for and deleting the profiles of convicted sex offenders.

The company will now make the profiles of 16 and 17 year-olds private by default, as it currently does with those of 14 and 15 year-olds.

MySpace will also explore the establishment of a children's e-mail registry, that will "empower parents to prevent their children from having access to MySpace or any other social networking site."

Furthermore, the company will organize an industry-wide "Internet Safety Technical Task Force," which will develop online safety tools, as well as look at implementing new age verification technology for social networking sites.

Among members of the new task force will be Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"Today millions of teens use social networking sites," Allen said in a statement. "The collaborative effort between MySpace and the Attorneys General is a major step that will make using social networking sites much safer for teens."

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