Pressure Mounts For Facebook 'Panic Buttons'

6:42am UK, Tuesday April 13, 2010

Huw Borland, Sky News Online
A child protection agency has mounted pressure on Facebook to add "panic buttons" to its pages during a showdown with the social networking giant.





CEOP wants a child protection link on Facebook pages

Jim Gamble, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said the website did not agree to his demands outright at a meeting in Washington.
But he felt Facebook was moving in the right direction.
Speaking after a four-hour meeting on Monday, Mr Gamble said the website was close to "doing the right thing" but urged it to turn "words into action."

(Facebook) are experts at creating a fantastic online environment but they are not experts in law enforcement.

CEOP's Jim Gamble



He said: "I am more optimistic than when I came. They are not saying, 'No,' that is very clear. But they were equally direct and they came with their own agenda.
"There is no doubt they are looking to improve their position around child safety and we recognise that. What I am looking for is turning words into action."


Victim Ashleigh Hall


The showdown came after controversy in Britain over Facebook's refusal to include a panic button on its pages after the conviction of a serial rapist who used the site to murder a girl.
Peter Chapman posed as a young boy to lure 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall to her death in the North East.
Calls have since grown for the inclusion of the buttons - which allow youngsters who feel threatened online to quickly contact a number of sources of help, like CEOP or anti-bullying helplines.
Politicians, police and anti-bullying groups have voiced outrage that the online giant will not bow to demands to include the system.
Mr Gamble said: "In our view, they are experts at creating a fantastic online environment but they are not experts in law enforcement, the power of deterrents and the reassurance it brings for mums and dads."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Technology/Facebook-Panic-Buttons-Social-Networking-Website-Pressured-To-Add-Child-Safety-Link-By-CEOP/Article/201004215600426?lpos=Technology_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15600426_Facebook_Panic_Buttons%3A_Social_Networking_Website_Pressured_To_Add_Child_Safety_Link_By_CEOP

I watched the interview. The news reader asked Jim Gamble if CEOP would be able to cope with the number of hits which could occur if the panic button was provided. Jim Gamble said CEOP is part of a police network and the idea was to pass on the information of both the complainant and the perpetrator to their local police for investigation.

Given that one frequently hears about crime referrals not being investigated due to lack of police resources I wonder what UK residents think of this.

Just a thought - but why would a child who feels threatened or unsafe whilst fiddling about on Facebook in the comfort of their own home need a panic button?

If they recognise at this stage that they are unsafe, then surely they aren't going to go meet the creep somewhere where the convenient Facebook panic button won't exist.

Wouldn't it be the children who don't recognise the danger signs who are going to be lured away to whatever and by that time no panic button is likely to be available to them.

Take care

One child might recognise the danger and not need a panic button for themselves, but by using it they might help prevent an unsuspecting child from going to meet the creep.

I doubt these pervs prey on one child at a time.

Where did I read that the panic button idea is more about Jim Gamble wanting to get to the peodophiles before they come to the attention of the police? Anyway, I'm with you on this Kololi and cannot see the need for a panic button - seems to me to be a knee-jerk reaction to the recent tragic case. I cannot see how a panic button would be of any use in situations like that.

Autumn wrote .................... 'Where did I read that the panic button idea is more about Jim Gamble wanting to get to the peodophiles before they come to the attention of the police?'

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I have written this a number of times in the past and I am not alone.

Because he deliberately does not acknowledge the dogs and other blatant evidences before him in the McCann case and has Madeleine featured on the CEOPS web-site, I have become even more suspicious Gamble now than when he was involved in Ore.

I would be as wary of giving information to Gamble, as I was of Metodo 3 and Halligen.

Facebook have re-vamped their on-line safety page but CEOP are far from happy as they have not caved in to their Panic Button demands.

pa.press.net, Updated: 17/04/2010
Facebook revamps online safety site

http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=153021288

Facebook has revealed its revamped online safety site
Facebook has unveiled its revamped internal site designed to help people stay safe and report threats while online.

Facebook's Safety Centre, which features new tools for parents, teachers, teenagers and law enforcement, is the first major endeavour from the social networking site and its four-month-old global safety advisory board.

The company unveiled its Safety Centre a day after meeting child protection officials in the UK, who had been pushing the company to install a "panic button" on the site for some time, following the kidnapping and murder of a teenager by a man she encountered on Facebook.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), had wanted Facebook to install a prominent link on UK users' profile pages that would take them to CEOP's own safety site designed to help children deal with online threats.

The centre called Facebook's move "long overdue" and "nothing more than we would expect from any responsible social network provider". But it added that "critical issues remain unresolved" since Facebook did not install a panic button.

"We believe that without the deterrence provided by direct visible access to the CEOP button on each and every page children will not be appropriately empowered, parents cannot be reassured and the offender will not be deterred," the centre said on its website.

Facebook's board is composed of internet safety groups Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute.

Some new features of the safety centre include more content on staying safe, such as dealing with bullying online, an interactive portal and a simpler design.

The presence of sexual predators is a problem for social networking sites and their users. Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, has helped identify and has disabled accounts of registered sex offenders.

In 2008 Facebook said it agreed to assist 49 attorney generals to protect children against internet predators.

---------------------------------------------------------

critical issues remain unresolved" since Facebook did not install a panic button' - seems that Jim Gamble is determined to get his way.

'The presence of sexual predators is a problem for social networking sites and their users ............... '

***********************************************************

Never mind just dealing with networking sites and the potential misery they can cause. It is a problem everywhere at the moment. What about cases that have already been identified which still need to be investigated, such as the Hollie Greig case?

How about dealing with all the online petitions and articles written about Hollie?

I suppose I can understand the knee jerk reaction after such an appalling crime.
As usual the media are all to quick to scaremonger with the 'stranger danger' stories. Reality is child sexual abuse is more far more likely to be at the hands of a family/extented family member.

twinkle wrote: Reality is child sexual abuse is more far more likely to be at the hands of a family/extented family member.

Try telling that to Leicestershire Police who witheld the Gaspars' statement from the PJ for 6 months.

Posted by Bestbefore

How about this for a bit of moonlighting from Clarence:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/997845/Tories-threaten-pull-advertising-Facebook/


Quote:
Tories threaten to pull advertising from Facebook
By Sara Kimberley, 20-Apr-10, 08:55

LONDON - The Conservative Party is threatening to pull advertising from Facebook over the social network's refusal to introduce a child-safety 'panic button'.

The party has been using the site to try to win over floating voters in the run-up to the general election. However, it is now considering withdrawing ads from the network.

Facebook has so far refused to provide a panic button on users' profiles that would allow children to contact police instantly if they think they are being targeted by paedophiles.

It is willing to display a button on its safety and help pages, but has stopped short of introducing a graphic "panic button" widely on its site. It has offered child-protection bodies, including the NSPCC, up to one billion free ad slots on its site, which has 23 million British users.

The Conservative Party's fan page has 23,800 members – the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have 7000 each.

A Green Party representative said that although it would like to see the addition of a panic button, it will continue to use the site for its campaigns.

Brands including British Airways and T-Mobile have backed Facebook's position, saying that they will still advertise on the site.



Clarence Mitchell is head of the Conservative Party's Media Monitoring Unit. Who, do you think, might have come up with this PR idea?

http://themaddiecasefiles.com/topic7734-40.html

erm, let me guess... the master media manipulator?
he just can't help himself, can he?

Ruby wrote:erm, let me guess... the master media manipulator?
he just can't help himself, can he?

***************************************************

It has to be hoped that he isn't in breach of his contract to the Cameron machine. What a truly powerful but dangerous man Mr. Mitchell seems to be.

Looks like CEOP are increasing the pressure on Facebook:

From the CEOP Website:-

Tuesday 20 April 2010


Some media have sought clarification about the outcome of CEOP’s meeting with Facebook which it was hoped would lead to improved child protection on the site

Facebook contacted CEOP to explain that, having discussed the issues at their Californian headquarters, they could not come to an agreement to adopt or test the adoption of the CEOP button. This is a disappointing response following what was an open and honest meeting on Monday 12th April at their Washington DC offices.

We believe that Facebook is missing the point. This is not about Facebook and CEOP: this is about child protection. That’s why our call for the Click CEOP button on every profile page is supported by leading charities including the NSPCC, Childline and Beatbullying and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), all of whom are responsible for picking up the pieces when things go wrong and children are bullied, abused and murdered.

We will continue to urge Facebook and others to adopt our reporting process and in the meantime will look at other ways in which we can increase the safety of young people in online environments.

Dr Zoe Hilton, CEOP’s Head of Safeguarding and Child Protection said:

“Facebook’s promise to do better with regards to their relationship and information-sharing practice is simply overdue and they deserve little credit for doing what so many others do as a matter of course. Providing an awareness-raising campaign is very little, very late in the day. It is no replacement for an effective and immediate response for children who need help while using their services.”
Dr Joe Sullivan, Principal Psychologist at CEOP said:

“We know from speaking to offenders who have targeted children online that a visible police presence would have caused them to pause and potentially change their course of action. The risk of being reported by a child with easy access to law enforcement is likely to have more impact on the behaviour of an offender than simply being blocked, which would only temporarily frustrate them.”

Emma-Jane Cross CEO Beatbullying commented:

"As a partner of CEOP, Beatbullying joins them in strongly recommending that Facebook add the CEOP report button.

“It is crucial that those who are being bullied online have access to immediate protection and help - at the click of a button.

"Beatbullying would welcome the opportunity to work with Facebook to help them set up the panic button system, something we have successfully campaigned for and done with Bebo and MSN.

"Our experience shows that this together with safe environments like our peer-to-peer support service cybermentors.org.uk, is the best way of protecting kids online and protect young people online.


Why will Facebook not embed the ClickCEOP button?


•‘It is not legally possible to make reports from the United States to the UK’. Incorrect. there are no legal barriers to prevent Facebook adopting the CEOP button. CEOP receives reports on a regular basis from law enforcement partners in the US.
•‘CEOP does not have the capacity to deal with the volume of reports which would arise from embedding the Click CEOP button on all Facebook profile pages’. Incorrect. The button is already embedded in some of the most popular online environments. MSN Messenger, for example, has millions of users and CEOP receives a substantial number of reports from people using our button in that and in other leading online environments.
•‘People find buttons confusing and are not an effective way of reporting’. Incorrect. Every month CEOP receives hundreds of reports from concerned parents, carers and children themselves. On average, CEOP receives four reports a day which indicate that a child may be at immediate risk. CEOP believes that the button is the most straightforward and effective reporting mechanism to access police services.

http://www.ceop.police.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2010/ceop_20042010.asp

Looks like Facebook are caving in


http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Facebook-Will-Add-A-Panic-Button-Link-To-Ceop-After-Public-Outcry-Over-Ashleigh-Hall-Murder/Article/201005415639276?lpos=UK_News_Second_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_6&lid=ARTICLE_15639276_Facebook_Will_Add_A_Panic_Button_Link_To_Ceop_After_Public_Outcry_Over_Ashleigh_Hall_Murder

Facebook To Add 'Panic Button' Link To Ceop

12:40pm UK, Thursday May 27, 2010

Sarah Gordon, Sky News Online

Facebook has confirmed it is in discussions to install a
"panic button" application on the site in an apparent u-turn on its
previous online safety stance.

Richard Allan, Facebook's director of public policy for Europe, told
Sky News the company was working "very closely" with the Child
Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) on the project.

He said: "We have continued talking to Ceop and are working very
closely with them on a Facebook application that allows Facebook users,
when they have concerns, to connnect with Ceop."

The social networking site had at first blocked calls by Ceop to add
"panic buttons" to its pages despite public concern following the
conviction of a serial rapist who used the site to meet an unsuspecting
teenage girl.

Peter Chapman posed as a young boy to lure 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall
to her death in October last year.
Following his prosecution, there were calls to install the button
which allows youngsters who feel threatened online to quickly contact a
number of sources of help, like Ceop or anti-bullying helplines.
But Facebook claimed it had its own "safety net" to ensure its users
were secure online.
However, it now appears that the social networking site has backed
down.
Ceop representatives have cautiously welcomed the surprise
announcement
"We have been in dialogue with Facebook for some time," a
spokesperson told Sky News Online.

"The recent public discussions were born out of frustration that we
could not reach an agreement.

"Obviously we cannot confirm progress until we have an agreement in
place with Facebook, but we are continuing to work with them."

Facebook also confirmed its willingness to continue working with Ceop, stating:
"We have had a number of constructive meetings and are working on a
range of innovative approaches that will help educate and raise
awareness of how to keep safe online."

Thanks Justagran

CEOP were never going to back down over this issue though I had hoped Facebook would have held out a bit longer.

Its good to have a panic button, but how is facebook going to monitor it?

CEOP has gotten credit for that but I dont see how they are going to enforce something they can hardly monitor.

So the button is straight through to CEOP. If the button is operational and not just an advert for CEOP I can see plenty of people abusing it on a daily basis, kids falling out with their mates & telling tales etc.

I suppose you could also accuse anyone of anything using it.

Well, if the button goes straight to CEOP and is operational, then good luck to them.

They will have a hard time keeping up. How will they differentiate those who are genuine, from those with agenda, and those who spam just for the fun.

Are they going to contact police and tell them to knock on door each time someone reports an abuse? I dont see how they can enforce it.