MySpace came to an agreement with 49 states today to revamp its policies and technology designed to protect children from online predators. The New York Times' Anne Barnard reports in Tuesday's edition about the deal the company made with the attorneys general of every state except Texas plus the District of Columbia.

TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld responds to the news with a review of the current child protection efforts of leading social sites MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and Orkut. In general, MySpace is already ahead of the rest in trying to identify potential predatory activities on its site, and suggests that the other sites may have to spend some money to catch up.

While any efforts to protect minors from sexual predators and other unsavory characters online is admirable, the effort to keep computers "safe" for kids is similar to other attempts to protect ourselves from high-tech computer crime. We have to make sure we have anti-virus and firewall software, we have to keep them updated and all of our software patched, in order to present at least a minimal defense against those who are determined to infect our computers and steal our personal information. But ultimately, the most effective defense against online predators is parental involvement and the setting of limits.

I commend MySpace for making the effort (and the others if they follow suit, which they certainly will, if only for public relations reasons), but like the v-chip in all current television receivers, if parents abdicate their responsibility to someone - or something - else, the risk to their children rises immediately. If you're letting your teens use MySpace, Facebook or other social networking sites, you need to understand exactly what those sites are about. Even if your child is mortified by the idea that mom or dad have their own MySpace account (in the interest of research, of course!), it's important that you know how they work so you can make educated decisions about your child's involvement with those sites.

Of course, if they're so mortified they don't want to use the site anymore because a parent can see what they're up to, maybe that's a positive result in itself. Don't get me wrong: I have both a Facebook and MySpace page, and I enjoy keeping in touch with the few older friends who have also jumped on the social network bandwagon, not to mention a few younger friends who I think are a bit bemused that I'm "on MySpace." These types of interactive web applications are part of the future, and they won't be legislated away. So it's all the more important for parents and guardians to keep up so that reasonable limits can be discussed and enforced.

Photo credit: Michal Zacharzewski, SXC