EU signs pact with Internet networking sites

BRUSSELS: The European Union has signed a pact with 17 social networking providers including Facebook, MySpace and Google to improve safeguards against the bullying of teenagers online.

EU spokesman Martin Selmayr says networking sites are now used by some 42 million people in the European Union, and young users need to be protected from abusive behavior on the Web sites.

The agreement commits the site operators to ``limit the risks'' of misuse by providing a ``report abuse'' button. This allows users to report ``inappropriate contact from or conduct by'' another user.

The site operators must also make sure online profiles and contact lists of underage users are set to the highest privacy settings.

The EU announced the agreement Tuesday.