The move ends a standoff between MySpace and top prosecutors from eight US states that had demanded the identities of convicted sex criminals who have posted their profiles on the News Corp-owned Web site.
State attorneys general subpoenaed MySpace after the Web site refused to hand over the data on the grounds that disclosure of the private information was barred by US law.
"Our subpoena compels this information right away - within hours not weeks, without delay - because it is vital to protecting children," said Connecticut state attorney general Richard Blumenthal.
"MySpace has decided to do the right thing, but additional steps are necessary, such as age verification, to protect children from predators on social networking sites."
MySpace executives said that since "Sentinel Safe" software began running on the Web site May 2 it has ferreted out about 7,000 profiles posted by convicted sex criminals.
MySpace deleted the profiles but saved information about them for law enforcement officials, MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam said.
"We've always intended to provide law enforcement with the information," said Nigam, a former US prosecutor who handled sex crimes.
"The last week has been about the mechanism to provide the information in a way so that someone charged by law enforcement doesn't get off because of a technicality."
US law bans illegally obtained evidence from being used in court.
North Carolina state attorney general Roy Cooper laments that the data from MySpace does not include sexual predators without convictions, using fake names, or not registered with police. "We still must do more to protect our children from predators," he said.
MySpace is lobbying for a federal law requiring convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses to make it easier to screen them from membership Web sites used by young people. There are approximately 600,000 registered sex offenders in the United States.
The justice chiefs of Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and New Hampshire have contacted MySpace since finding thousands of convicted sex offenders with profiles on the site. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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