Facebook gets safer
Categories: Teens & tweens, In the news, Media, Gadgets & tech
Social networking websites like Facebook are all the rage with teenagers these days. Unfortunately, they're also popular with those who would prey on teenagers. Facebook, the second largest such site, has just gotten safer, however. Working with states' attorneys general, the company has agreed to make changes to become less perilous for kids.Last January, MySpace, the largest social networking site in the world, came to a similar agreement. Some of the changes Facebook are to prevent alcohol and tobacco ads from reaching those too young to purchase those items, to disallow groups related to incest, pedophilia, and bullying, and to issue a warning when a child is about to provide personal information to an adult.
"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." Forty-nine states and Washington D.C. have approved the agreements.
Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General from Connecticut, hailed the agreement as the start of "a new era in social networking safety." It's a new world inside the computer and it's good that steps are being made in making it a safer environment for kids.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Beth SG 5-09-2008 @ 1:58PM
Safer is good, but what struck me from this article is that they had to make a CHANGE to "disallow groups related to incest, pedophilia, and bullying?!?!"
I will assume that means just adding an explicit prohibition to their policies, not that those groups were welcome before?
Please tell me that's the case!
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Mel 5-09-2008 @ 2:14PM
I really hope most commenters here don't worry about Facbook safety. After all, many commentors thought it was just peachy to drop a 9-year old in the NC subway system. Honestly, what could one encounter on Facebook that they wouldn't encounter on the effing subway?! Those "predators" everyone worries about on Facebook? Worried that your kids will somehow meet them in person? The subway, and actually public places in general, contain those "predators." The internet merely contains the *possibility* of kids meeting the predators; the subway reflects that *reality*
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MommaLia 5-09-2008 @ 2:30PM
Actually the concept of "Stranger Danger" we grew up with has never been completely accurate. The vast majority of children and young women who are abused have always been by those known to the victims: parents, step-parents, siblings, boyfriends, teachers, clergy etc OR those who they've grown to trust; ie.: the church member who has never dated and so is seen as "safe". Much of the abuse is repetitive and long-term which means the abuser counts on the victim feeling as if it is their fault and their idea. These internet social networks have become a great place for predators to get children to trust them. Although the Daumiers of the world make the headlines and get caught. Immeasurable harm is done to children and society by these more subtle criminal who frequently live and die without ever being stopped and have dozens or even hundreds of victims.
Julia 5-10-2008 @ 2:07PM
Good god. Why in the world do people have this vision of the NYC subway as being the shuttle to hell, filled with every type of sinister person ever? I've been riding it for a decade, almost every day, and nothing has happened to me. I must be doing it wrong.
Most of my friends who grew up here took the subway to school and back every day, starting at a young age. They're not scarred from the experience. I guess they did it wrong too.
Mel 5-09-2008 @ 2:15PM
NYC subway, not NC
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queenoqueens 5-09-2008 @ 2:23PM
While I wouldn't leave my 9 year old in the NYC subway system, I think the online community is a little different. First of all, the subways are crowded most of the time. If the kid were to stay in crowded areas, the weirdos would be less likely to prey on them because they would be noticed. I was born and raised in NYC so I know this from personal experience. The online world is different in that the weirdos can privately target the ones they want to victimize. There's no accountability in the online world.
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ninainindia 5-09-2008 @ 10:23PM
I don't think there is anything dangerous about facebook. No one that you don't know can see your profile if that's what you want. It's not the responsibility of Facebook (or any other similar company) to "protect" children from so calles dangers.
Pretending there are millions of online predators (just the word alone is so overdone!) ready to pray on children is just another way of making people scared of live.
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Uly 5-10-2008 @ 2:18AM
"Some of the changes Facebook are to prevent alcohol and tobacco ads from reaching those too young to purchase those items, to disallow groups related to incest, pedophilia, and bullying, and to issue a warning when a child is about to provide personal information to an adult."
What does this mean, exactly? Does this mean that people who are incest or bullying survivors can't form a support group to talk about their problems?
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Debbie Morgan 5-13-2008 @ 2:01AM
I'm glad to see MySpace and Facebook taking responsibility for the safety of our children on the internet. However, there are things parents can do to help on their end as well. We've all heard about keeping the computer in the living room, den or other high traffic area of the house and using the parental controls that are available from the internet providers to keep an eye on our kid’s computer habits. But, I've recently learned about an inexpensive hardware tools that parents can purchase to place on their computers that log every keystroke that is typed on the keyboard. It's called a keylogger. There are software programs that will log keystrokes but the hardware is easy to install, undetected by the teen and can be read with any text program on the computer by simply typing in a password. By using this tool, parents can find out what their teen is typing and determine if they are safe. As a parent, it’s horrible be the last to find out that your teen's been talking to a predator. With a keylogger on your computer, you can take a more active roll in protecting your teen from predators and Kudos to MySpace and Facebook for doing their part.
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