Cyber-Bullying Pact Signed by Social Networking Sites
Seventeen social networking sites in Europe including Facebook
and MySpace have signed a pact aimed at curbing "cyber-bullying"
and protecting the privacy of underage users, the European
Commission said.
The Commission, the 27-nation EU's executive arm, said the
agreement will cut the risks of children harassing peers online and
curb "grooming" - the practice of adults befriending children
online with the intention of committing sexual abuse.
"It is an important step forward toward making our children's
clicks on social networking sites safer in Europe," Viviane Reding,
EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media said in a
statement.
The use of social networks has grown over the past year by 35
per cent in Europe and is expected to more than double to 107.4
million users by 2012, the Commission said, warning that this would
expose more children to risks online
MySpace owned by News Corp. last week revealed to a U.S.
investigative task force that it had barred some 90,000 registered
sex offenders from using the site over the last two years.
The Commission said the voluntary agreement was hoped to:
* Ensure that private profiles of users under the age of 18 are
not searchable on the websites or search engines.
* Provide an easy to use and accessible "report abuse" software
button, allowing users to report inappropriate contact from or
conduct by another user with one click.
* Make sure that the full online profiles and contact lists of
website users who are registered as under-18s are set to "private"
by default, making it harder for people with bad intentions to get
in touch with young people.
The British Home Office took similar steps to improve online
safety last April, while 49 State Attorneys General in the United
Sates have signed similar separate agreements with Myspace and
Facebook.
The other sites that signed the EU agreement include: Arto,
Bebo, Dailymotion, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Netlog,
Nasza-klaza.pl, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel,
Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu.
(Source: Reuters)