The social networking Web site Facebook will create and enforce new security standards to respond to an investigation by Attorney General Cuomo’s office that found “significant defects” in the site’s safety controls.

The site will hire an independent safety officer, distribute a new protection disclosure to parents, and begin responding to complaints within 24 hours, Mr. Cuomo and the chief privacy officer for Facebook, Chris Kelly, said yesterday.

Mr. Cuomo said his investigators, who posed as underage users of the Web site, were solicited repeatedly by adult sexual predators and found easy access to pornographic images and videos. The company was slow to respond to his initial charges, Mr. Cuomo said in September when he first announced his investigation.

“Our agreement with Facebook offers a new model of cooperative action that balances the freedom offered by the Internet with the necessary precautions for children traveling on the information superhighway,” the attorney general said.

The independent safety monitor will report on the Web site’s compliance for two years, Mr. Cuomo said. Facebook also disclosed new safety procedures on the Web site, created an e-mail address for complaints, and posted several links for users to file complaints more easily.

The site receives as many as tens of thousands of complaints a day, Mr. Kelly said. He promised that Facebook would respond to complaints about inappropriate content or behavior within 24 hours and address them directly within 72 hours.

The disclosure is aimed at explaining to parents and users what exactly is available on the Web site so they can decide whether they want their child to use it, Mr. Cuomo said.

It will read, “Facebook cannot guarantee that its site is entirely free of illegal, offensive, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate material, or that its members will not encounter inappropriate or illegal conduct from other members,” he said.

Currently, users under age 13 may not use the site.

Mr. Kelly said Facebook has always been committed to providing a trusted online environment for all users.

“When Mark and his co-founders built the Facebook Web site in 2004, privacy was a core tenet evident early on by the segmented structure of networks and extensive privacy options,” he said, referring to the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. “Today, with over 47 million active users, we at Facebook are committed to the principles of our founding days.” The settlement yesterday is not related to an ongoing effort by attorneys general across the country to impose age-verification requirements and other safeguards on social networking sites.