[kictanet] Networking sites fail to protect children from, abuse, says CEOP head

[alice]

Networking sites fail to protect children from
abuse, says CEOP head

Adam Fresco

Social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook are leaving l 
children vulnerable to abuse from
paedophiles by refusing to embed a free online safety button on their 
sites allowing users to report abuse,
according to the senior policeman responsible for child protection online.

Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre 
(CEOP) which devised the “report
button”, has launched an unprecedented attack on the sites saying that 
it is time for them to stop hiding behind
excuses and put their money where their mouth issign up to its free 
abuse button.
After years of trying to get them to use CEOP’s free abuse button, which 
links children and teenagers to advice
sites for bullying or abuse, as well as directing them to counsellors 
and law enforcement staff, Mr Gamble said
that he had had enough of their “red herrings”.

Yesterday Bebo announced that it would be using the CEOP button. In the 
past three years 5,000 investigations
have been initiated because of information received from someone using 
the button and 800 arrests made.
Mr Gamble said: “We want to see the big sites doing the same thing. We 
have spoken to some of them and they
are trying to pull relationships with CEOP closer to the surface but 
that is not good enough.
“We give them the button to put on every page. Will children be safer? 
Yes. If you have not got this button, the
question is why not.
“We are saying it’s time to up your game and stop hiding behind red 
herrings of technical difficulties. We have to
draw a line in the sand and do the right thing and if you don’t we will 
continue to badger and demand these
environments are made safer."
He said he did not accept any of the rhetoric about technical difficulties.
Mr Gamble said: “If you wanted to put a tiny advert in, see how 
technically difficult that would be!
“We want a visible deterrent and reassurance and a button that tells 
children ‘you are only one click away from
advice (and) help’.”
He argued that any referrals from the links are monitored by CEOP free 
of charge and so does not put any
pressure on staff of networking sites.
Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, 
said that he would encourage other sites to
copy Bebo and embed the CEOP Report button.
Mr Gamble added that he was worried that some of the social networking 
sites were so big that he had no
influence over them at all, so was instead appealing to the people that 
occupied senior positions in the “multimillion
dollar companies to do the right thing for the right reasons”.
“What they sacrifice is space for advertising. It is easy to say the 
right thing but this is about demonstrable
leadership.”
Asked if the social networking sites were putting children at risk, he 
said: “If you are a paedophile or someone
that goes out to engage children under false pretences and bullies them 
into meeting in the real world, are you
going to want to go into an environment where you know there is an 
online partnernship with law enforcement or
an environment with no visible partnership?
“If it was me I know where I would go. If you are a burglar and go down 
a road of big houses that are all
identical, do you burgle the ones with an alarm or without?
 From The Times
His purpose was to deter paedophiles from entering social networking 
sites. “Children deserve protection because
they are vulnerable.”
Agreeing that he was speaking about MySpace and Facebook, he added: 
“There are one or two very large social
networking sites that encourage children to frequent these environments 
because it generates millions in
advertising revenue.
“The time has come for these few organisations to catch up with the 
rest. There is a duty of care and
responsibility that must lie with a few social networking sites that 
have not done what others have done and put
child safety first.
“I know Facebook and MySpace have teams of people trying to protect 
children, I don’t understand why they
don’t accept professional support from credible sources with access to 
law enforcement with executive authority.”
Richard Allan, Director of Policy for Facebook, said that the company 
was having ongoing discussions with CEOP
to find the best way to protect its users.
He said that his site had automated systems to detect unusual behaviour 
from users and anyone seeking to
“befriend someone else for unpleasant purposes” would be warned or banned.
It also had its own automated reporting system.
One of the practical issues it had was that a lot of the complaints 
would not be relevant to CEOP.
“Clearly CEOP do not want that traffic and that is a practical issue we 
have. Our interest is absolutely about
creating a safe environment, that is our bread and butter.”
A spokesman for MySpace said: “The safety of users is of paramount 
importance to MySpace. We have robust
procedures in place to protect young people on our site, and worked 
directly and closely with CEOP to establish
our Report Abuse processes in the UK. We look forward to continuing our 
dialogue with CEOP in the future.”
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