Roy Cooper says cooperation will work better than lawsuits or new laws.

The state attorney general said this afternoon that he wants to work with social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook to protect children from sexual predators, rather than join a multi-state lawsuit or pass new state or federal laws.

"Technology is racing ahead so quickly that if we would have to win a court case over a period of years or if we happen to win a new law, it may be obsolete by the time it comes around to enforcing it," he told Dome.

Still, he said he would not rule out the other approaches in part because the threat helps make sure the companies are willing to work with him.

"We're emphasizing to them right now how critical it is for them to do it themselves," he said.

Cooper will not push any new social networking laws this session, though he previously supported a bill that made it a crime for a registered sex offender to use the sites.

He said he will share the information he's received from subpoenas with local law enforcement officials, who may begin prosecutions. He's also going to work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to collect data from other law enforcement agencies.