Sexual predators have found ways on the Internet to insinuate themselves into the lives of young people, with dismaying and, at times, even tragic results.

Steps have been taken to prevent such occurrences. The social network Facebook has agreed to implement principles designed to guard young users from online predators and inappropriate material.

Discussions over the past year among 49 state attorneys general have produced guidelines and ideas intended to protect young people.

Facebook will require clients younger than 18 to read its safety tips when they sign up. The site will display prominently a "report abuse" icon that was created by New Jersey's attorney general.

The company also is designing technology to identify older users who are lying about their age, the New York Times reports. And the site has pledged to remove within 24 hours any material targeted as inappropriate.

One of the main jobs of protective measures on such networks is to identify older users attempting to contact young, impressionable people. Hence, Facebook's protective technology is intended to identify such age disparities between participants who are linked online.

MySpace has complied with the attorneys general as well to implement similar age-verification technology. Both MySpace and Facebook have joined a new Internet safety task force for social networking sites, the Times notes.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has led much of the discussion among his colleagues in other states, said: "We envision this as an ongoing process. We purposely built into this agreement the opportunity to raise and address new issues. If we see a problem, they'll hear from us."

This is an important initiative. Protecting young people from online predators is crucial. The effort should be ongoing.