Facebook revamps 'Safety Centre', stops short on panic button

Following a meeting between the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook, Facebook has agreed to a raft of measures to protect young people from predators on it's site, but crucially stopped short of installing the much-debated CEOP 'Panic Button' on every page.

The social network has been under increasing pressure from the UK authorities to add the CEOP 'Panic Button' to each user's profile but has continually resisted. Instead of the button, Facebook users in the UK and under the age of 19 will be able to click on a 'Report abuse' link on each page which will subsequently provide the option to report abuse to CEOP or Facebook themselves.

Facebook branded 'arrogant' and 'complacent' towards paedophile threat

A child-protection expert has branded Facebook 'arrogant' and 'complacent' despite an in increase in reports of paedophile activity on the site.  

Predators on Facebook: Should you be worried?

 

In the wake of the shocking rape and murder of teenager Ashleigh Hall, who was ‘groomed’ by predatory paedophile Peter Chapman on Facebook, the British press have been quick to point the finger of blame at Facebook.

In an unbelievably sensationalist article on the Daily Mail website, Mark Williams-Thomas, a ‘vastly experienced’ consultant in child protection and a former police detective, paints a terrifying picture of hundreds of men waiting to groom and abuse young women online.  Mr Williams-Thomas set up a profile purporting to be a 14-year old girl and, apparently, simply waited for the indecent proposals to flood in.

Facebook Campaigns Place Children ‘At Risk’

An outbreak of Facebook Campaigns created to ‘out’ promiscuous women on Facebook are putting children at risk, according to a report in today’s Metro newspaper.

Safer Internet Day: Microsoft and CEOP release Internet Explorer 8 “Click Clever, Click Safe” Version

 
Today Microsoft have launched a special version of their Internet Explorer 8 browser software, in conjunction with the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).  The “Click Clever, Click Safe” version contains several tools to enable the user to quickly obtain advice from and report their concerns to CEOP.

Social Networking sites to launch "Panic Button"

A report in today's Telegraph suggests that an end is nigh to the ongoing disagreement between Internet Safety organisations and Social Networking sites on the use of so-called "Panic Buttons". 

Earlier this month, the social networking site Bebo agreed to place a "Panic Button" on it's website.  The button, created in association with the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), allows children to quickly and easily report offensive, obscene and other inappropriate material.  At the time, other (larger) social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace refused to adopt the scheme, claiming that they had sufficient mechanisms in place to protect their young users in the first instance.