By Matt Murphy
The Berkshire Eagle
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BOSTON — The popular social networking Web site Facebook has agreed to impose strict new rules on users aimed at protecting children from online predators.
The agreement announced yesterday by Attorney General Martha Coakley comes on the heels of a similar pact reached between MySpace and 49 states in January that law enforcement officials hope will make it harder for Internet predators to make contact with minor children.
Facebook, the second-largest social networking site, has more than 70 million users worldwide and is growing in popularity. Only MySpace is larger, with more than 200 million registered users.
The age of the Internet has exposed children more than ever before to strangers, and parents are often lacking in the ability or knowledge of what goes on online to protect them.
Law enforcement officials have lauded these agreements as a step in the right direction toward corporations working with government authorities to make sure everyone involved is safe.
“We are excited to announce this agreement with Facebook because yet another leader in the social networking industry is not only acknowledging the importance of protecting children from inappropriate content and contact but also making significant changes to its site to enhance the safety of minors using the site,” Coakley said.
Facebook has agreed to put new restrictions on its Web site, including an “age lock” preventing users from frequently changing their ages to mask their identity, allowing users under 18 to block all users over 18 from contacting them or viewing their profiles, and preventing users over 18 from searching for high school students that are not in their senior year.
These are just a few of the 40 new safeguards that will be implemented on the site, along with the creation of a 24-hour hotline to respond to law enforcement inquiries.
The agreement marks a resolution to months of negotiation between Facebook officials and 11 attorneys general led by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and several other states and including the District of Columbia.
Texas is the only state to have not signed off on either agreement reached with Facebook and MySpace.
“I think there has been too much freedom on the Internet for predators to prey on kids. This is a much needed tool,” said Laurie Myers, a child safety advocate who founded the organization Community Voices. “It seems like a fact of life now that kids are going to post on the Internet. I would just hate for this to give parents the impression that it’s OK to let kids do whatever they want on the Internet because even these tools can’t replace parental involvement.”
Facebook will now use a default setting to restrict access to minors’ profiles to those who are in the child’s social network. The agreement also calls for more aggressive monitoring of content, including the posting of off-line contact information such as phone numbers and addresses and access of minors to groups or pages promoting pornography, tobacco or alcohol.
“It’s amazing what kids are exposed to on the Internet,” Myers said. “I often tell parents to either make up a user name or use their kid’s and sit in a chat room for 10 minutes and just see what happens.”
While the Internet can be a great tool to stay in touch with friends, meet new people with similar interests or expand business connections, it can also be used by sexual predators to target children.
FBI crime statistics shows that six out of 10 kids online have gotten an e-mail or instant message from a perfect stranger, and more than half have written back. One in every 33 children has been coaxed to meet an online stranger in person, and one in four kids between the ages of 10 and 17 has reported being exposed to unwanted sexual material.
A 2006 Emerson Hospital survey of 8,000 junior and senior high school students found that almost 14 percent of seventh-graders and 15 percent of high school students had met someone in person that they initially met over the Internet.
The attorneys general agreement is just one of several measures Massachusetts officials are exploring to protect children from online predators.
Berkshire County District Attorney David F. Capeless created a mentor program that trains high school students to teach students in kindergarten through second grade about Internet safety.
More than 40 separate pieces of legislation relating to sex offenders or the protection of children from online predators also have been filed this session in the Legislature.
Copyright 2008 The Berkshire Eagle