Coakley hails MySpace agreement

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley today hailed an agreement between 49 US state attorneys general and the popular social networking site MySpace as a "huge step" toward protecting children who venture onto the Internet.

Under an agreement signed by the attorneys general and the company, MySpace has approved a broad set of guidelines aimed at shielding children from sexual predators who use the site as well as from inappropriate material.

"This is an additional tool to keep kids safe online," she said.

MySpace, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and the most popular social networking site, has pledged to take several steps to ensure children's safety, including allowing parents to send in their children's e-mail addresses so that MySpace can prevent them from creating a profile on the site.

"This agreement also has to include the education of parents and kids about the dangers of social networking sites," Coakley said in a news conference. "We are in a brave new world on this. And we're not going to go backwards."

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