with the latest news release from Attorney General Bill McCollun on the agreement with Facebook to improve Social Networking Safety.
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Bill McCollum
Attorney General
News Release
May 8, 2008
Florida Announces Agreement With Facebook to Boost Social Networking Safety
~ Company will join MySpace task force to explore possibilities of age and
identity verification technology ~
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today
announced that Florida has joined 48 states and the District of Columbia in
an agreement with Facebook, a popular internet social networking site. The
agreement focuses on several changes Facebook will make to better protect
children from predators and inappropriate content and to participate in a
task force on implementation of age and identity verification software.
“All too often, children are careless about what they share with
strangers online, and we must continue working to protect our children from
predators who may exploit social networking sites to locate their next
victim,” said Attorney General McCollum. “I applaud Facebook for joining
the Attorneys General in our quest to improve internet safety.”
As a result of today’s agreement, Facebook has agreed to implement
several changes to its site, including a measure of protection to address a
behavior known as “grooming,” where predators lie about their age online in
order to seduce their victims. Facebook staff will review initial age
change requests and each requestor’s profile to determine whether the
requested change is appropriate for each user. Facebook will also more
prominently display safety tips; require users under 18 to affirm they have
read Facebook’s safety tips when they sign up; and regularly review models
for abuse reporting.
Additional changes will include the provision of automatic warning
messages when a child is in danger of giving personal information to an
unknown adult. The site will act more aggressively to remove inappropriate
content and groups from the site by maintaining a list of pornographic
websites and regularly sever any links to such sites. The site will also
remove groups and individual memberships for incest, pedophilia,
cyberbullying and other violations of the site’s terms of services.
The safety requirements will be extended to third party vendors and
companies offering Facebook user services, called “widgets.” These
companies will now have to implement and enforce Facebook’s safety and
privacy guidelines.
The Facebook agreement is similar to one MySpace reached in January
with 49 states and the District of Columbia. Under that agreement, MySpace
agreed to head a task force to explore and develop age and identity
identification tools for social networking sites. Facebook has joined this
task force and will participate in developing the internet safety
initiatives.
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Evelyn out.
