In an effort to placate parents who watch Dateline: To Catch a Predator and privacy advocates whose No. 1 goal in life is to make the Internet safe for kids to upload photos of their puppies, Facebook is implementing new privacy safeguards for minors.

None of which can’t be completely fudged, of course.

The company will now require users under 18 to affirm they have read Facebook’s safety tips when they sign up; it will also more prominently offer safety tips and an unsubtle “report abuse” icon, devised by the New Jersey Attorney General.

Facebook will also no longer let people change their ages from over 18 to under 18 without review and have agreed to take down within 24 hours any material flagged as inappropriate.

To prove people are as old as they say they are on the service, the company is developing behavioral technology to weed out the fibbers, says Chris Kelly, Facebook’s privacy czar. Such technology could, for example, identify when someone is friends with people of a significantly different age — an indication something is amiss. [NYT]

So, Facebook users will:

• Have to check a box to assure they’re 18

• Have a new button to push, other than “Deny Friend Request,” to flag inappropriate content

• Not be able to change their ages from over 18 to under 18, which should be a red flag already, since PEOPLE DO NOT MAGICALLY CHANGE AGE

• Be susceptible to special-ops level behavioral targeting, which will flag something as amiss if, say, all your friends are 20 years older than you

This will certainly keep the Horace Mann teacher-student feuding to a minimum.