Police social Web sites

MYSPACE.com has sidestepped the regulatory clutches of states with a multipronged plan to protect its social networking site from bullies and sexual predators.

An accord reached with attorneys general from 49 states promises much in the name of making it more difficult for strangers to contact underage MySpace users. Steps include better monitoring of content, improved age-verification software and creating a closed "high school" section for users under 18. Other measures include extra staff on the lookout for inappropriate content, and increased monitoring of discussion groups and photos. A 24-hour hotline and a 72-hour deadline to investigate all complaints offer some comfort to parents and law-enforcement officials who have long demanded the Internet phenomenon do a better job protecting its underage users from sexual predators, pornography and other online ills.

Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna touts the agreement as evidence MySpace is on board with efforts to protect children who go online.

The efforts are welcome. The list of children sexually assaulted by people they meet online is growing. The case of the Missouri teenager who hanged herself after corresponding on MySpace with a "boy" — really the mother of a former friend — has struck fear in the hearts of parents.

But cautious optimism is the best way to view MySpace's plans. Until virtual online worlds such as MySpace and its competitor Facebook are better and more widely policed, going after one site is a partial solution.

Granted, the bigger fish deserved to be hooked first. MySpace has more than 200 million registered users worldwide; its competitor, Facebook, has 61 million.

Some of MySpace's plans appear naive. For example, its plan to compare user names against lists of known sex offenders assumes, in many cases wrongly, that predators use their real names.

A MySpace registry is being created to allow parents to submit e-mail addresses and prevent their kids, or others, from using those addresses to create profiles. That's notable, but resourceful youths will create as many e-mail addresses as needed to avoid parental constraints.

These criticisms are not an invitation to give up, but to do more.