12 July 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor

Facebook bows to child safety group, allows 'panic button'

Facebook, the far and away market leader in social networking with a population base of around half a billion, has recently reached an agreement with the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to implement a 'panic button' for young users.

The agreement follows months of negotiations between CEOP and Facebook, as well as petitions from local law enforcement officers and organisations.

"Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCeop button is well documented - today, however, is a good day for child protection," said CEOP chief executive Jim Gamble.

"By adding this application, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCeop button which should provide reassurance to every parent with teenagers on the site," Gamble added.

Facebook had originally maintained that its current reporting system for online predators was sufficient. However, after a 17-year-old girl was raped and murdered by a 33-year-old man posing as a teen, pressure began to mount on the website.

Facebook officials have said that while the Ceop panic button will be available for use, it will continue to promote its own in-house security system.

"We still have the Facebook reporting system and by having a pre-packaged application that users play an active part in, you not only help keep them safe, it makes all of their friends aware too, and acts as a viral awareness campaign," Sophy Silver, Facebook's head of UK communications, told the BBC.

"Ultimately though, this makes for a safer environment for users and that's the most important part," she said, adding that "both sides are happy as to where we have got."

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