HARRISBURG – Attorney General Tom Corbett along with attorneys general from 48 other states and the District of Columbia announced that Facebook has agreed to significant steps to better protect children on the social networking site.
Corbett said that like the agreement reached with MySpace in January, this agreement will better protect children from predators and inappropriate content on the Internet.
“Pennsylvania continues to be one of the leading states concerning Internet safety for children,” Corbett said. “Along with our aggressive Child Predator Unit and our educational program ‘Operation Safe Surf,’ this agreement is another step we’ve taken to protect the innocence of children.”
Corbett said that as part of this agreement, Facebook will join the industry-wide Internet Safety Technical Task Force, which was created after the January agreement with MySpace, to explore and develop age and identity verification tools. Every three months the task force will report back to the attorneys general and ultimately issue a formal report with findings and recommendations at the end of 2008.
Corbett said that changes agreed to by Facebook include providing automatic warning messages when a child is in danger of giving personal information to an unknown adult, restricting the ability of users to change their listed ages, and acting more aggressively to remove inappropriate content and groups from the site.
According to the agreement, companies offering Facebook users services, called “widgets,” will now have to implement and enforce Facebook’s safety and privacy guidelines. Facebook also has agreed to maintain a list of pornographic websites and regularly cut any links to such sites. It will remove groups for incest, pedophilia, cyber bullying and other violations of the site’s terms of services, and will expel members who violate these terms.
Click here to view the agreement.
Corbett encouraged parents to discuss Internet safety with their children, including the danger of meeting strangers who approach them online. Additionally, he urged parents to report predators who sexually solicit children or send sexually graphic photos and videos.
Internet predators can be reported to the Child Predator Unit by calling 1-800-385-1044, or by filing an online complaint. Detailed information about Internet safety is also available in the “Operation Safe Surf” and “Just 4 Kids” sections of the Attorney General’s Web site.