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.

Roy Cooper says a task force on social networking did not do its job.

Speaking at the spring conference of the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington this afternoon, the attorney general disagreed with a task force that said sex predators are not a major problem on sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The Internet Safety Technical Task Force was created by 49 attorneys general to look into the problem of sexual solicitation of children online.

Its 278-page report, released in January, said that children were unlikely to be propositioned online and teens were willing participants.

In brief remarks at the conference, Cooper said he shares the concerns of other attorneys general about the report.

He said the task force interpreted its mission in an "overly broad" way and "did not concentrate on what we asked them to do." 

After promoting state legislation and considering multistate litigation, Cooper said he now has hopes that technological advances on identity verification can address the problem, along with education and law enforcement efforts.

The N.C. Troopers Association has endorsed Kay Hagan.

The group, which represents members of the state Highway Patrol,  praised her record in the state Senate on school safety, sex predators and gangs. 

"Your record of supporting Troopers and police officers, of supporting improvements to public safety and for more effective law and order is extraordinary, "wrote president Ron Crawford in a letter to Hagan. "Our troopers need a strong voice in Washington to lead efforts for legislation to promote Trooper and officer safety. The evidence demonstrates that you are the most qualified candidate to serve in the U.S. Senate.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue's latest ad focuses on her family and her efforts on sex predators.