Facebook has made, what seem to be, moves tied to public relations. If you are an avid consumer of the news, it is no surprise to you that the social networking site has attracted some negative publicity recently for certain privacy issues. Facebook has now teamed with The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre to develop an application that gives users the ability to “Protect yourself. Protect your mates. Make it easy”. It appears this campaign may avert some of the heat from the sites other short comings. Either way, this is a great move. Still, it is not a button as many have led on. It is an application from CEOP.
The only concern that arises then is that its viral distribution may suffer because it is not perceived as “hip, cool, or grown-up”. Still if it does catch on, it could be a huge step toward raising awareness and will hopefully dissuade predators from even accessing the site. The app can be found here.
Facebook has been resisting the launch of the ‘panic button’ for years. But the pressure mounted on the site after the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, who was posing as a teenage boy, who she allegedly met on the site. Presently, it is functioning in the UK. There has been no mention of bringing it to the states yet.
Parent’s best bet is to still monitor their children’s behavior and correspondence. Have a talk with your child about the dangers of internet and let them know you are not opposed to making sure they are safe from the sidelines. Parental controls can only do so much. You need to let your kid know you are onboard with whatever they are doing, but they should see who they are really talking to.
A reverse email search will do just that. If you do so, and find the person’s name, a sex offender search may be the next step.
Whatever motivated Facebook to launch this campaign, I’m elated that such steps have been made.
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