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The company will also join a task force designed to explore and develop identity verification tools for social networking websites. Under the agreement, Facebook's search facility will become more limited, and there will be restrictions on over 18 year old users trying to find under 18 year olds. In addition, all registered sex offenders' profiles will be removed.

Application developers will also be required to enforce Facebook's safety and privacy guidelines and the website has promised to step up its efforts to remove groups for incest, paedophilia

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and cyberbullying.

Facebook will keep a log of user requests to change their age in their profiles, and scrutinise the data - allowing just one single request to change above or below 18 years old. It will also receive alerts when an under 18 year old is giving personal information to an adult.

Privacy controls will also be stepped up, so that users can further restrict the number of people who can view their profile, and parents will have access to tools that enable them to delete their underage child's profile.

"This agreement marks another milestone step for social networking safety; protecting kids from online predators and pornography," said US attorney general Richard Blumenthal. "Our ultimate goal is age and identity verification technology; safeguards against child molesters and inappropriate material. Checking ages and identities is vital to better shielding underage users from predators and pornography."

Blumenthal added that sites must recognise their responsibility, and stressed that the agreement is open-ended, and safety measures need to evolve in tandem with advances in technology.