Hot on the heels of news that Facebook will be removing regional networks and improving privacy controls, the company has announced the formation of a Safety Advisory Board to help protect children and teens who use the social networking website.
According to Elliot Schrage, the vice president of global communications and public policy for Facebook, “The formation of a board to advise specifically on safety issues is a positive, innovative and collaborative step towards creating a more robust safety environment, and we are thrilled that such a well-respected, trusted group of organizations has joined us in this endeavor.” The five organizations that will be included in the advisory board are Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, Childnet International, The Family Online Safety Institute, and WiredSafety (which is headed by Parry Aftab who is also on the Advisory Board of MTV’s A Thin Line campaign).
If you’ve spent anytime in the internet safety arena, you’re probably familiar with some or all of these organizations. Here at the ReputationDefender Blog, we’ve even taken time to highlight many of them for their excellent research and compelling conclusions about children and teens on the web. The quality of these organizations shows that Facebook is not simply paying lip service to critics, but is actually interested in improving overall safety for users.
In addition to the formation of its advisory board, Facebook is said to be considering the addition of a “Panic Button” feature to the site that will help users immediately report online threats. The panic button, which has already been announced by another popular social networking website, Bebo.com, has received strong support from government for being an effective and efficient way for immediately improving the safety of social networking websites.
It will be interesting to see whether Facebook ultimately adopts the panic button and, if so, how it will appear visually on the site. I also see a potential for abuse of the panic button, but perhaps there will be a built-in failsafe to prevent malicious reporting. What do you think of Facebook’s foray into children’s safety? Is the company doing enough?
2 comments ↓
I am a Senior woman that does not want any part of what I hear regarding Facebook to protect my privacy! It has been reported that several children have been in trouble for unethical messages.
I am a board member of a neighborhood association & our leader is asking us to use Facebook to look at pictures! I don’t agree with that idea
Anna
Hello Anna. Thank you for your comment. It is interesting that your neighborhood group is asking you to monitor some of the kids in your area. Is the plan to report their behavior to their parents? If you decide to participate in the monitoring, one thing to keep an eye out for is cyberbullying, which is a fast-growing problem for kids online.
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