Facebook STILL a Danger to Children: Zuckerberg, Attorney General Cuomo in PR Push
“Facebook will be safer,” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, beamed yesterday, in coohoots with Facebook, but offered little of substance to back up the grandiose claim.
In fact, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal quickly outed the NY-Facebook purported “new model to protect children online” for lacking the “powerful, practical measures” necessary to “shield children from sexual predators, unsuitable content and unsafe adults,” and threatened legal action against Facebook.
Not only does NY’s “new model” do nothing to proactively “protect children” at Facebook, Cuomo eagerly stepped up to the Facebook promotion plate, hailing the NY agreement gives “Facebook a competitive advantage in the marketplace.” YAY?
The ground breaking ”child saftey” commitment Cuomo obtained from Mark Zuckerberg? Facebook agrees to repsond to “complaints” in a timely matter. YAY?
Despite the mutual Cuomo-Zuckerberg backslapping, Facebook will do nothing different going forward to change the way Facebook operates in order to provide the “safe environment” it purports to offer, the supposed aim of the New York State Attorney General.
Connecticut’s Blumenthal, who co-chairs the national social networking task force of all 50 attorneys general with Attorney General Roy Cooper of North Carolina, is not deterred by the ineffectual New York stance:
We will demand that Facebook take powerful, practical measures — age and identity verification, parental consent, purging inappropriate content, restrictions on minor access to inappropriate material. Dramatic, drastic changes must better shield children.
Blumenthal’s task force is expected to urge:
- Requiring age and identity verification for users 18 and older, and parental permission for users younger than 18.
- Implementing filtering technology to screen out sexually explicit, racist, violent or other mature images and significantly increasing the number of staff reviewing such images.
- Prohibiting sexually explicit and other inappropriate word and phrase searches.
- Hiding minors’ profiles from adults.
- Limiting minors’ search options.
- Removing inappropriate advertising targeting minors.
- Barring minors from accessing sexually explicit content.
Why would New York’s Cuomo rush to “settle” now with Facebook at the expense of real child safety? Who knows.
Connecticut’s Blumenthal assures, nevertheless:
Much more must be done to protect children on Facebook. Our national coalition will continue fighting to make Facebook and other social networking sites safer. We will explore all options — including possible legal action.
Keep fighting, Richard (not Andrew, apparently).
Cuomo says “we’ve established a new model for child protection on the net.” YES, BUT A BAD ONE!
Cuomo also says he hopes other social networking sites would feel compelled to compete on the basis of the protections they offer teens and their parents. YES, AND FACEBOOK IS NOW AT A COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE, thanks in part to Cuomo’s ill-advised nod.
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