A plan by the popular social networking Web site MySpace .com to let parents monitor the basic personal information their children give out was met with skepticism by those considering legal action against the site.

MySpace said last week it plans to offer parents a free software download that would allow them to track a child's MySpace user name, purported age and location. The move comes in response to concerns about teens pretending to be older than they are and reports of a few dozen who have been molested or even murdered by adults they met online.

The most popular of several social networking sites, MySpace had 55 million users last month in the U.S. The download is expected to be available in beta form this spring, MySpace officials say. MySpace didn't reveal details about the software.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the plan "a shortsighted and ineffective response to a towering danger to kids. ... (Users) can easily evade" the software. His task force of 34 state attorneys general is considering a lawsuit against MySpace over safety and asked the site to raise its minimum age from 14 to 16 and make users verify their age.

Notification software doesn't do enough to protect children, he said: "You've got 10-, 11- and 12-year-old kids who are on the site. That's a problem. Parents are lulled into thinking this is a safe site for children ... but they are a mouse click away from predators and porn."