The biggest social networking site MySpace announced an agreement with 49 US states to ramp up online safety.  MySpace will introduce age verification and a string of other measures designed to make it more difficult for sex offenders to target children through the site.

Under the agreement, MySpace pledged to work with the attorneys general on a set of principles to combat harmful material on social-networking sites, better educate parents and schools about online threats, cooperate with law enforcement officials around the country, as well as develop new technology for age and identity verification on the site.

Currently MySpace members must be 14 years old to create a profile, but the site has no effective age verification process. The site also automatically makes the profiles of its 14- and 15-year-old members private and will soon extend that practice to 16- and 17-year-olds in an effort to further protect them from being contacted by unknown adults, MySpace said. MySpace boasts with more than 179 million active profiles.

The site, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, also promised to respond within 72 hours to complaints about inappropriate content and to devote more staff and resources to classify photographs and discussion groups.

Last year in May by using a software called Sentinel Safe developed by Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. and implemented on May 2, 2007, MySpace has discovered and deleted

more than 29,000 accounts belonging to convicted sex offenders.