Latest News > 10 March 10 - Child Protection Agency CEOP Calls On Facebook And Other Social Networking Sites To Adopt Panic Button To Protect Youngsters

 

The UK’s national centre for protecting children, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has called for all social networking providers to adopt a one click button on their sites so children can get immediate police help and advice.


The announcement follows the terrible murder of teenager Ashleigh Hall at the hands of sex offender Peter Chapman, who groomed the teenager via social networking site Facebook.


The message from CEOP, a UK team of specialist police officers working to tackle child abuse, is clear: adopt the button.


CLICKCEOP was launched in 2006 as an online button for young people to use whenever they are in danger online.  It has already been adopted by hundreds of sites including MSN Live Messenger in the UK and AOL Bebo.


However Facebook is among those networking sites who have not adopted the online panic button at present.


By clicking on the link children can access a range of advice and guidance from organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Childline, Beatbullying and GetSafeOnline.


Children can also use the link to make reports to CEOP’s specialist police teams with over 500 reports being received each month.


CEOP says that four reports a day are cases where a child is in immediate possible danger.


Chief Executive of the CEOP Centre Jim Gamble says:

“We have been asking social networking providers for too long to do the right thing. MSN set the trend to adopt the ‘button’ and AOL Bebo, as well as hundreds of others have stepped forward to help their young users.


“Since November 2009 when we launched the ‘button’ in AOL Bebo, we have carried out careful analysis to look at varying sites who haven’t adopted our service and the trends are worrying.”


Chief Executive of the CEOP Centre Jim Gamble, who is the lead for protecting children on the internet on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), adds:

“267 reports were received about activity in Facebook for instance during 2009, of which 43 per cent were cases of suspected grooming. However, 81 per cent of those reports were made by people having to go to other sites to make the report.


“That cannot be right. The button is a deterrent to offenders and provides users with a choice of either going to their social network provider or to CEOP for a range of advice and help. Why would anyone want to speak to a service provider about illegal activity and not come straight to us so that action can be taken?


“Offenders have already seen the full force of what can be achieved when children click on the button and make a report. Social networking providers need to step up to the plate.”


Jon Stoddart, Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary and ACPO lead for Homicide adds: “CEOP is part of the UK police family and I join in calling on social networking providers to adopt the CEOP button.


“One click gives children, young people, their carers and families direct access to a range of credible advice and help.


“It also gives them the ability to report their concerns about online grooming to CEOP or to their own local police force.”


CEOP is a member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS). CEOP says its advice and guidance service that lies behind the online button has been adopted as the central portal helping to keep children safe online within the UK.


Facebook has responded by urging extreme caution about meeting strangers via online networks. In a statement in response to the current media speculation about online safety for young people, the social networking site says:

“We echo the advice of the police, who urge people not to meet anyone they have been contacted by online unless they know for certain who they are, as there are unscrupulous people in the world with malevolent agendas.”



 

 

 

 

 

 

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