The European Commission has signed an agreement with 17 social networking sites for creating a safer environment for young people online. The agreement includes measures meant to protect users from becoming the victims of harassing messages or sexual predators.

 

The social networking sites that have signed the deal include Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, French video website Dailymotion, and Habbo Hotel, the virtual world for children, the Commission revealed on Tuesday.

 

According to the agreement, the 17 social networking sites will ensure that users can report abuse with a single click, the default setting for online profiles and contact lists is set to private for users under 18, private profiles of users under 18 will no longer be searchable, and that privacy options will be more prominent so users know who can see what they’ve posted online - only their friends or everyone else out there.

 

The changes are said to be implemented by April 2009, although some of them have already been put in place. The Commission has also initiated a campaign against cyber-bullying, which seems to be a growing problem these days.

 

The European Commission has allocated a budget of €55 million for fighting illegal content, but also harmful conduct such as grooming and bullying.

 

Last week, MySpace removed 90,000 sex offenders from its website. In mid-January this year, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal have announced an agreement with MySpace to take the necessary steps to ensure children’s safety on the social networking sites, which included the creation of a task force to explore and develop age and identity verification technology.

 

The agreement was the result of two years of discussions between law enforcement officials and social networking sites for creating a safe environment for children, away from sexual predators.