Just an addition to my post below – more information has come through on T! Tech about the agreement signed in Luxembourg today by the social networking sites. Apparently, seventeen sites (namely Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe and Zap.lu) “have agreed to put a “report abuse” button on their sites allowing people under 18 to report inappropriate contact or conduct by another user by clicking on it.
“They will also ensure that the online profiles and contact lists of users under 18 are set to “private”, making it harder to get in contact with young people, and make sure that they cannot be located with a search engine.
“The firms will also prevent under-age users from accessing their services.”
Well, the first two are relatively easy to accomplish. But I look forward with great interest as to how they are going to manage the third. Still, as they have have pledged to introduce the measures by April 2009, we won’t have to watch this space for too long …
See Yahoo! Tech’s piece here