December 7, 2009 by Jenny Sanderson
Parents and youth advocates have long worried about the potentially harmful influence social networking sites like facebook could have on the young. In response to these worries, facebook has decided to install what is being referred to as a ‘panic button’ on their site so that children can quickly alert site administrators whenever they see material that is offensive or obscene. The button will work in a similar fashion to the one that features on the social networking site Bebo, whose demographic skews much younger than facebook.
The move comes in the wake of a recent list of internet standards drawn up by government adviser for online safety, Tanya Byron. The panic button is just one of the suggested measures, others include offering a ‘safe search’ version of the site that prevents children from seeing any offensive content that the site may contain. Facebook is joined by more than 140 other firms and groups in implementing the new guidelines.
In conjunction with the new code of practice, the government also plans to release an ad campaign that warns children of the dangers of the internet and advises parents to limit internet access to supervised areas.
Related posts:
