A child protection agency based in Britain has recently held talks with social networking giant Facebook in order to convince them to add a type of “panic button” in order to protect children from stalkers.
The move comes after a British man was convicted last month of stalking a teenage girl on Facebook in order to rape and murder her.
Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, is reported by Yahoo News as saying that Facebook is “one small step away from doing the right thing”.
Gamble would like to see a digital button added to the site that would help young users contact helpful agencies, such as law authorities or anti-bullying help lines, if they feel threatened on the site.
Gamble also said that “there is no doubt [Facebook] are looking to improve their position around child safety and we recognise that”.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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