Facebook adds safeguards to protect young users from bullying, predators

Facebook, the world’s second-largest social networking Web site, is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies under an agreement with officials nationwide that was announced Thursday.

The changes include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users’ ability to search online for subscribers younger than 18 and joining an existing task force seeking ways to better verify users’ ages and identities.

Officials from Washington, D.C., and all states save Texas have signed on. Texas officials want the site to move faster.