Child Safety

MySpace says it can't guarantee that the people who sign up for its social networking site aren't underage or sex offenders. But it averted a potential legal battle Monday by agreeing to keep trying. A group of 49 state attorneys general probing safety issues at MySpace and other online social networks signed a deal with the Beverly Hills-based unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Childproofing for the holidays usually involves putting those showy, toddler-beckoning poinsettias beyond the reach of small hands. But the now ubiquitous Christmas plants have an undeserved reputation for being poisonous. A small child could actually eat up to 500 leaves with little effect -- if he could withstand the terribly bitter taste. Whence this fear of the holiday plant, then?

Roman Catholic dioceses nationwide have taught more than 6 million children to protect themselves from sexual predators and have conducted 1.6 million background checks on workers in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis, according to a report released Thursday. Auditors hired by America's bishops found that nearly all of the 195 U.S.

Tests on more than 1,200 children's products, most of them still on store shelves, found that 35% contain lead -- many with levels far above the federal recall standard for lead paint. A Hannah Montana card game case, a Go Diego Go! backpack and Circo-brand shoes were among the items with excessive lead in the tests performed by a coalition of environmental health groups.

U.S. regulatory advisors recommended strengthening safety warnings on GlaxoSmithKline's asthma drug Serevent amid new reports of deaths among children taking the drug. A Food and Drug Administration expert panel reviewed nine new adverse-event reports on children taking the inhaled treatment, including five deaths in about a year. At least two panelists said the data were so convincing that Serevent should be pulled from the market.

The popular but dangerous toy Aqua Dots was recalled but the fliers advertising it apparently were not. A Toys R Us flier distributed in some Sunday newspapers contains an ad for Aqua Dots, the popular toy beads yanked from U.S. store shelves nearly three weeks ago because they are coated in a chemical that can turn into the "date-rape" drug when swallowed. The circular advertises the Aqua Dots Super Studio for $19.99 -- a $5 savings.

The California attorney general and Los Angeles city attorney said they would file a lawsuit today against Mattel Inc., Toys R Us Inc. and 18 other companies, accusing them of making or selling products that contain "unlawful quantities of lead." The move follows major recalls of toys, lunchboxes, children's jewelry and other goods during the last year by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington.

Mother knows best, even when it comes to lead contamination. Multiple children's products -- including backpacks, rain ponchos and vinyl lunchboxes -- tested positive for high levels of lead after a Santa Clarita mother found evidence of contamination using a home test swab, a nonprofit health organization said Tuesday.

Millions of Chinese-made toys have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful "date rape" drug when ingested. Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads. The recall is yet another blow to the toy industry -- already bruised by a slew of recalls during the summer.

What's a mother to do? For decades, parents have been turning to the nation's pharmacies for help when their children come down with coughs, runny noses, sneezes and your standard cold. Kid-size doses of pills, sprays and cough syrups fill Americans' medicine cabinets. Now, the federal government is questioning whether some of these children's medicines should be pulled from drugstore shelves for safety, and some parents are wondering whether officials are going too far.