Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell was on the executive committee that spent two years in discussions with MySpace. Instead of going to Manhattan for the announcement, however, McDonnell was in Washington yesterday for a Supreme Court case involving a criminal case out of Portsmouth.

He released a statement commending MySpace for "stepping up and leading the way in improving security features on social networking Web sites. . . . This is the way we keep children safer, by working for progress and improvements with technology leaders."

MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., also will accept independent monitoring and changes to the structure of its site.

Still, Chris Roberts, senior consultant with Data Directions Inc. in Mechanicsville, cautioned against relying too much on technology.

"Every time someone comes up with a technical solution, it's only a matter of time before some other technical person figures out a way around it," Roberts said. "At the end of the day, parental involvement . . . is going to help 100 times more than something that MySpace or Facebook can come up with."

The agreement was announced by attorneys general from New Jersey, North Carolina, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. Legal authorities have long been seeking greater controls for networking sites to prevent predators from using them to contact children.

Investigators have increasingly examined MySpace, Facebook.com and other sites where people post information and images and invite contact from other people.

In Virginia, a Youth Internet Safety Task Force formed by McDonnell in 2006 was one of the leaders in reforming laws aimed at Internet predators. MySpace also was a member of the task force.

"It's great to see private industry take steps to protect children. That's everyone's goal," said Rusty McGuire, chief deputy commonwealth's attorney in Louisa County. McGuire specialized in cyber crimes when he was a prosecutor for the Virginia attorney general's office.

During the past year, McGuire said, he's spoken to about 15,000 children about safety online. He often explains safety steps as being similar to locking up your bicycle.

"It doesn't mean that your bike can't be hurt, but it reduces the opportunity. There's no one step you can take that's going to guarantee protection absolutely, but there are reasonable steps you can take."

Even with the protections in place, he said, parents should monitor their children's MySpace accounts.

"Parents should become an online friend of their child. You wouldn't let a bad person talk to your child at the bus stop." By signing up as a friend, the parents can see if the child is receiving inappropriate or hurtful messages online.

As part of the new agreement, MySpace will set up a technical task force to develop a process for verifying ages and identities of people online, said Tucker Martin, communications director for the Virginia attorney general's office.

"Everybody wants age verification, but how can you actually make that work?" Martin asked. "If they're successful, it will revolutionize" the Internet experience.

In a written statement, MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam thanked the attorneys general "for a thoughtful and constructive conversation on Internet safety. This is an industrywide challenge, and we must all work together to create a safer Internet."

He said the agreement includes measures "to provide a safer online experience for teens, and we look forward to sharing our ongoing safety innovations with other companies."

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or kcalos@timesdispatch.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.