As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Facebook was subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General has now settled after being accused of making claims “that youngsters there are safer from sexual predators than at most sites.” According to Bloomberg.com
Blumenthal, Connecticut’s top law enforcement officer, wants Facebook to implement reforms including verifying user age and identity, filtering sexually explicit, racist or violent content and hiding minors’ profiles from adults. The coalition will explore options including “possible legal action,” he said.
While Facebook has settled with the Attorney General’s office, they have yet to settle with a coalition of U.S. states that would like there to be more safeguards. All this comes on the heels of recent reports that showed a majority of underage internet users had been approached by strangers online. A smaller percentage of those individuals felt uncomfortable after being approached.
Both Facebook and MySpace have come under fire after accused child sex offenders appeared on the sites. MySpace has taken action by banning these individuals from their site. They have also submitted a list of those individuals to the Attorney General’s office. This is going to be an ongoing battle as the states fight for access to information from the closed social networks in order to protect the public.
I'd be interested in reading a post about how many Facebook apps can you put on your profile, before it becomes cluttered. Then, a Facebook profile page will look a lot like a MySpace page. It'll be horrible to look at, since the average user isn't very good at web design. Thoughts?
Comment by AW — October 16, 2007 @ 10:36 am
[...] likely that this is an accurate accusation though. This news comes on the heels of Facebook’s settlement with the New York Attorney General in which Facebook agreed to more stringent privacy [...]
Pingback by Facebook Faces More Legal Trouble - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — October 23, 2007 @ 9:37 am