Facebook has announced that they will be linking their social networking site to the CEOP report abuse button.  We have added this button on our Glow blogs (on the sidebar to the right).

The button will report abuse to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre as well as Facebook.

The button will not automatically appear on every users profile.  Instead, users will be required to add the button as an ‘app’.  They can do this in one of 3 ways, by clicking the CEOP tab, sharing the CEOP badge, or adding the CEOP bookmark.  Don’t know the difference?  Neither do I.  Whilst I think it is a big step forward that Facebook are recognising the importance of the CEOP report abuse feature in this way, I am not sure if it goes far enough.

Advertising of this app will be directed towards Facebook users aged between 11 – 18 (assuming that they registered with their correct date of birth).  Many, including my 12 year old cousin, signed up with a false date of birth (in her case 1970) to get around Facebook’s requirement for users to be at least 13 years old.

It may just be a teething problem, but when I tried to share this news with my friends I got about 40 new windows opening up.  Enough to put someone off!

You are requested to log in to the “clickCEOP” badge app.  I am not comfortable with this as too many of these apps share information with third party software providers.

When I did manage to get the “app” on my page it showed me how many other Facebook users ‘liked’ the button.  None of these other users were my ‘friends’ but as their accounts were not private I was able to view their profiles.  Again this does not add up to me.  Great that Facebook are taking steps in Internet Safety, but work to be done?

I was then discouraged that after I had followed the 3 steps it was not obvious to me where the click CEOP button was on my Facebook page.  As I have more than 4 ‘apps’ on the go already I had to click the ‘more’ button to be able to see it.

There was widespread news coverage over the last few months, saying that Facebook was resisiting the idea.  The launch follows months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook, which initially resisted the idea.

Bebo became the first network to add the button with MySpace following suit, but Facebook resisted the change, saying its own reporting systems were sufficient.

Pressure mounted on Facebook following the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, posing as a teenage boy, who she met on Facebook.  Forty-four police chiefs in England, Wales and Scotland, signed a letter backing Ceop’s call for a panic button on every Facebook page.

Source: BBC News

Have you used any of these new CEOP/Facebook features?  It would be great to hear what your experience has been.