Facebook rejects ‘panic’ button calls (From The Northern Echo)

Facebook rejects ‘panic’ button calls

8:50am Friday 19th March 2010 in

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WEBSITE Facebook has rejected calls from ministers and child protection campaigners to include an anti-paedophile “panic”

button on its site.

Company executives said including the button on the main section of the site could deter anxious users from coming forward.

Calls for the button to be placed prominently were made following the conviction of rapist Peter Chapman for the murder of Darlington student Ashleigh Hall, who met him on the site.

Ashleigh’s mother, Andrea, called for action after the conviction of Chapman, who had posed as a teenager on the site.

Yesterday, Home Secretary Alan Johnson met Facebook executives.

In a statement following the meeting he said the company did not object to the button “in principle”.

But Richard Allan, director of policy for Facebook Europe, later made clear the company was not considering including the button on its main pages.

Instead users may be given a link to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) once they complete a generic reporting form on the site, and a link to their website will also be included in the “safety” section of the site.

Including the button in the main reporting field could discourage concerned users from coming forward, Mr Allan said.

The appropriate place for the CEOP button on Facebook was in the site’s Safety Centre, he said.

But CEOP has called for the button to be placed much more prominently.

Chief executive Jim Gamble said the decision to “bury” the link to CEOP in the background of the site would reduce protection for children.

And he questioned whether it would take “another tragic event” to prompt the site into action.

Mr Johnson said representatives of CEOP would meet Facebook representatives in the US capital, Washington, next month to discuss the issue.

Following Ashleigh’s death, The Northern Echo has launched the Safety Net campaign to push for better education and legislation to protect young people on the internet.