Under an agreement with U.S. officials, Facebook is adding more than 40 new security safeguards to the site. These precautionary measures are to protect young users from cyber-predators and bullies.

The agreement involves officials from Washington and 49 states in the U.S. A lot of the proposed changes have been implemented while others proposed are still in the works, said officials, as reported by the AP. Among them is the total banning of convicted sex offenders, limiting older users from contacting those under 18. A task force will also  be set up to find ways to verify users’ ages and identities.

“The agreement marks another watershed step toward social networking safety, protecting kids from online predators and inappropriate content,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

“Building a safe and trusted online experience has been part of Facebook from its outset,” said Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer. “The attorneys general have shown great leadership in helping to address the critical issue of Internet safety, and we commend them for continuing to set high standards for all players in the online arena.”

One state is a hold-out though - Texas. The Lone Star state does not endorse the agreement nor did they endorse another one reached in January among the other states, the District of Columbia and MySpace. The excuse? Texas officials say they want the sites to ‘work faster’ on verifying users’ ages and identities.

“Social networks that encourage kids to come to their sites have a responsibility to keep those kids safe,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said. “We’ve now gotten the two largest social networking sites to agree to take significant steps to protect children from predators and pornography.”

A surprise finding is that online bullies are far more common than sexual predators, according to John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

“It’s very rare for an adult to meet a child on a social network and to do them harm, although the ones that do occur get a huge amount of attention, and they are terrible,” he said.

Online bullying, whether through instant-message programs or social networks, is on the rise, said Palfrey.

Among other measures, Facebook agreed (taken from the AP) to:

• Ensure companies offering services on its site comply with its safety and privacy guidelines.

• Keep tobacco and alcohol ads from users too young to purchase those products.

• Remove groups whose comments or images suggest they may involve incest, pedophilia, bullying or other inappropriate content.

• Participate in the Harvard-based task force set up in January under the national agreement with MySpace. It includes scholars, a prosecutor, businesses, state officials and child safety advocates.

• Send warning messages when a child is in danger of giving personal information to an adult.

• Review users’ profiles when they ask to change their age, ensuring the update is legitimate and not intended to let adults masquerade as children.

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Entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 1:02 am under Security.  Print This Post

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