MySpace, the News Corp-owned social-networking site, will implement several security measures to protect users from sexual predators as part of a new agreement that state regulators in the US hailed as a potential model for the burgeoning industry.

The agreement was announced yesterday after nearly two years of contentious negotiations. Among other measures, it calls for MySpace to create an e-mail registry that would allow parents to bar their children from the site, and allow users under 18 to keep their profiles private from older users.