Facebook 'ignored paedophile complaints'

www.news.com.au

• By Martin Brunt of Sky News
• From: NewsCore
• April 09, 2010 11:34AM

THE UK's top child abuse investigator has accused Facebook of ignoring users' complaints about the threat of paedophiles.

Sky News reported more than 250 Facebook users this year have reported concerns to the leading social networking site and have not had a response, Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said.

The complaints were pursued by CEOP and have led to a number of police investigations and arrests for sex grooming, bullying and hacking, Mr Gamble added.

He wants bosses at the social networking site to install a panic-button device to report perverts.

"The sort of thing I'm talking about is a mother calling us and saying her daughter has been talking to someone on Facebook she is worried about and she's reported it to Facebook and there is no response," Mr Gamble said.

Last year, CEOP had 297 similar complaints from Facebook users, accusing the site of ignoring their reported concerns.

Mr Gamble is to meet Facebook chiefs at their Washington DC office on Monday to discuss the issue and press the company to adopt the CEOP panic button which gives children a shortcut to reporting concerns to police and other agencies.

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