A child-protection expert has branded Facebook 'arrogant' and 'complacent' despite an in increase in reports of paedophile activity on the site.
'Is Facebook so arrogant that it does not matter what the collective child protection community think? Social networking websites need to make some decisions. Do you want to be a chosen site for rapists and murderers?'
'If their system is so robust and they are recieving so many reports and concerns from young people, then where are they?'
Jim Gamble,
UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
The stinging criticism comes in the wake of Facebook's refusal to add the 'Click CEOP' button (or 'Panic Button') to every page of its site. Other major sites including Bebo and MSN have already adoped the 'Click CEOP' button, which allows users to report suspicious activity straight to Ceop.
CEOP, whose staff include former police officers, child protection staff and computer experts, monitors online paedophile activity and can pass reports and intelligence to police.
Facebook has agreed to place the panic button within its own 'reporting' area, several clicks away, insisting that their own reporting method is stringent enough to deal with the threat. But Mr Gamble, a former deputy director of the National Crime Squad, said that Facebook had never reported any suspicious or inappropriate behaviour to any UK police force.
Child protection teams report that cases involving predators on the site have trebled in the last year.
In the first three months of 2010 CEOP received 252 complaints about activity on Facebook - 40% of which related to potential paedophile activity. This compares with 297 complaints in the whole of 2009.
None of these reports came directly from Facebook themselves.
Mr Gamble is due to meet the vice-president of Facebook in Washington on Monday to discuss his concerns.
A spokesperson for Facebook said that they take the issue of safety very seriously, and will wait until after their meeting with CEOP before sharing their safety strategy with the wider public.
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