Facebook defends its safety policy

Tuesday 16 March 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Tags: Facebook, Internet, Networking, Privacy, Security, Social

Following the recent controversy over the Daily Mail's erroneous reporting of the dangers faced by under-18s using Facebook, the social networking site has defended its safety policy.

The Daily Mail has admitted that its article, published in print and on line on Wednesday - in which it was claimed that young girls who join Facebook could be approached "within seconds" by older men who want "to perform a sex act" in front of them - was incorrect. The story had been penned by a leading criminologist and ex-detective but had been doctored by a journalist and had not been corrected when the author had asked for amendments, including the removal of references to Facebook. The criminologist, Mark Williams-Thomas, later confirmed that he had not been using Facebook but another social networking site for the experiment, although he would not state which one.

Facebook, which is reportedly considering legal action in response to the article, has called on Williams-Thomas to name the site he was actually using, while resisting mounting pressure to add a 'panic button' to its own site. The button, already featured on competitor sites Bebo and MSN Messenger, links users directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) to report suspected paedophile activity.

On Thursday Ceop accused Facebook of ignoring claims that the site is providing a safe haven for paedophiles by not signing up to the button. In response, Richard Allan, head of Facebook's European public policy operation, defended the company's decision in an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, saying:

"We simply believe we have some very effective reporting mechanisms already on the site. They are very simple and well understood by our users and what they allow us to do is have really good real-time intelligence about the kind of activities taking place on the site. And when there are issues of concern we have a very strong team of technology experts who are then able to intervene and try and stop things happening before they become dangerous."

Mr Allan admitted that Facebook's system "can never be 100% effective" but stated that he believed that the site is "one of the safest environments out there on the Internet". He also said, "What we are really keen to do is to ensure that our users, the parents, the children, have a really good understanding of how to keep themselves safe on line."

Facebook joined Microsoft, MySpace and Bebo (among others) when it became part of the Internet Watch Foundation - an initiative that polices child sexual abuse content on line - last month.

Back to industry news