Facebook will not add a safety button on each user’s profile page, despite calls from a leading UK child protection agency, saying they would ‘confuse and intimidate’ users. Instead it will run a £5m safety campaign including a 24-hour police hotline. The move comes after a lengthy four-hour meeting in Washington with the Child Exploitation […]
Facebook will not add a safety button on each user’s profile page, despite calls from a leading UK child protection agency, saying they would ‘confuse and intimidate’ users. Instead it will run a £5m safety campaign including a 24-hour police hotline. The move comes after a lengthy four-hour meeting in Washington with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan.
Facebook stopped short of adding a CEOP safety button to each user’s profile page, but did announce a raft of new safety measures which it believes will be more effective in protecting children’s safety online. Instead of the button, UK users under the age of 19 will now be able to click on the ‘Report abuse’ link on each page and have the option to report the abuse directly to CEOP as well as to Facebook employees.
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Richard Allan, Facebook’s director of policy for Europe, said: “We completely accept that our users should be able to report abuse directly to CEOP but we disagree on the best design solution to implement that.
“From our experience big graphics of ‘buttons’ produce less good results – in terms of people actually reporting abuse. They intimidate and confuse people. We think our simple text link, which gives people the option to report abuse to CEOP as well as to the Facebook team, is a far more effective solution.”
The integration of the CEOP reporting option has gone live with immediate effect and Facebook has chosen to integrate the CEOP button into its ‘Safety and Help Centre’ – as it believes the button makes “good sense” in that context.
Facebook has now launched the UK’s largest online safety campaign. Facebook’s comprehensive initiative is designed to better protect its 23 million British users and to give them greater control over their safety online.
The campaign consists of:
Redesigned Abuse Reporting System: Facebook’s reporting system will enable users to report unwanted or suspicious contact directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and other leading safety and child protection organisations.
A £5 million investment in education and awareness: Facebook will provide leading safety organisations with one billon advertising impressions to help them to raise awareness and educate the millions of Britons who rely on Facebook every day on how to stay safe online. Facebook has also introduced a new Safety Centre with improved resources for parents, teachers, teens and police.
Improved cooperation with police: Facebook will create a new 24 hr police hotline, dedicated solely to helping UK police with emergencies, investigations and prosecutions.
Public-private partnership: The company called on government to consider new ways in which information about registered sex offenders can be securely shared with social networks – a model widely deployed by the US States Attorney Generals which has effectively removed dangerous individuals from access to such services.
“The investments and partnerships we’ve announced today — in direct reporting, in education and awareness, and in greater support for law enforcement — will transform social networking safety and security. They represent the most comprehensive public/private safety initiative since social networking began in the UK almost a decade ago,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice-President of Global Communications and Public Policy at Facebook.
In addition to its £5 million investment, Facebook is also launching a completely redesigned Safety Centre (www.facebook.com/safety) with new safety resources designed to inform parents, educators, teens, and members of the law enforcement community about Facebook’s tools for using the service safely.
This is the first major collaboration between Facebook and its global Safety Advisory Board. Facebook also used the European Union’s Safer Social Networking Principles, a set of recommended best practices adopted by the social networking industry in consultation with the European Commission, to inform the new design.
Elliot Schrage continued: “There is no single answer to making the Internet or Facebook safer. That’s why we’re approaching this in so many different ways. We’ve redesigned Facebook’s abuse reporting mechanisms. We’re investing in raising awareness, and giving parents, educators and teens new tools. We’re building new bridges with law enforcement and encouraging new laws and regulations. Our announcement today outlines critical components of our global safety strategy”.
www.facebook.com/safety
