Facebook to improve predator reporting system

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The popular social networking Web site Facebook says it is taking new steps to protect its users from online predators.

The precautions will include a new safety disclosure for parents and a more efficient complaint process to report unsolicited sexual advances and inappropriate content, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday at a news conference.

Facebook will also allow an independent examiner -- chosen and paid for by the company, but approved by the attorney general -- to report on its compliance for the next two years.

"When you put the disclosures together with the new complaint review process together with the independent safety examiner, I think it's fair to say that Facebook will have the safest interaction of its kind in the marketplace," said Cuomo.

Cuomo said his office is talking with other social networking sites to implement new safety measures, but he did not disclose the names of those companies.

He also said his office is working with the nation's other attorneys general to address other safety and security problems associated with Facebook and similar Web sites.

This agreement was separate from the continuing mission of the attorneys general to impose safeguards on these sites, Cuomo said, according to The Associated Press.

Tuesday's announcement came a few weeks after Cuomo launched an investigation into Facebook.

Last month, he said his investigators conducted tests that revealed "significant defects" in safety controls and the company's response to complaints.

They also found "deficiencies that stand in contrast to the reassuring statements made on the Web site and by company officials," Cuomo said.

Posing as underage users, the investigators were repeatedly solicited by adults and had easy access to pornographic materials. Additionally, complaints -- issued by the investigators posing as parents or underage users -- were "often ignored" or received slow response times, Cuomo said.

Rarely did Facebook take action based on the complaints, he said.

Cuomo subpoenaed the company last month, asked for complaints regarding inappropriate solicitation of underage users and inappropriate content along with Facebook's responses to the complaints.

Facebook's chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, said the Web site's commitment to safety had slipped but said the company is getting back on track.

"We've worked closely with the attorney general over the last few weeks with the renewed vigilance to empower people to be safe on Facebook," he said during Monday's news conference.

"Society must educate its youth about safe practices on the Internet and empower its children to act responsibly," Kelly added.

Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, and launched in 2004 as a way to link college students, has about 47 million members.

The Web site expanded to include high school students in 2005, and then opened its doors to anyone in September 2006. E-mail to a friend

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