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Facebook, states set bullying, predator safeguards
Published Friday, May 9, 2008
JACKSON (AP) — Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, says Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood.
Facebook will ban convicted sex offenders from the site, limit older users' ability to contact subscribers under 18 and participate in a task force set up earlier this year to find ways to better verify users' ages and identities.
Hood said Thursday that the agreement is not foolproof and that parents should remain active in monitoring their children's Internet activity.
"The Web is the Wild West," Hood said. "There are no rules out there. We are trying to implement some, but I don't want the parents to say the attorneys general are taking care of it, so it is safe. It is not."
Hood said children run the risk of communicating with sexual predators and of being bullied by other youths. Illegal activities, he said, also can be hatched on sites like Facebook.
Other officials from Washington, D.C., and 48 other states have signed on.
Facebook, which has more than 70 million active users worldwide, already has enacted many of the changes and others are in the works, its officials said Thursday.
"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."
Comments
Posted by ProNatchez (anonymous) on May 11, 2008 at 1:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I have been using the Internet since before there was a World Wide Web. It is not the place to let your children run amok. If your children need to use it, please make sure they are supervised. Just because you don't know how to find the bad stuff, don't think for a second that they don't know, and don't say, my kids would never be interested in that. They are easily lured and easily led.
Kids these days are not at all like we were. They know what sex is years before we knew. They are computer savvy when most adults are not. However, they are still young and impressionable. There are people out there who will try anything they can to hurt your kids. They need you to keep them safe. If you don't know how to use the Internet, then go take a class or two. You owe it to your children to protect them. If you don't do it, who will?
Posted by judy9205 (anonymous) on May 12, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I want to thank all the attorney generals who have shown leadership in addressing the issue of internet safety. My 16 year old son Matthew was bullied on his facebook site and at the time I checked only what he was writing not all the awful horrible stuff that others his own age were writing and sending out. Matthew Whittington was also harrassed on the cell phone daily which I did not realize and was physically stalked by a homeschooled neighbor who we had been neighbors with for over 10 years. My precious son Matthew Whittington was violently and brutally murdered by that neighbor who lived behind our home on March 14, 2007.
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