Facebook launches applicationto protect teens from sex predators

Introduces Panic Button for Kids on its webpage.

Facebook users aged 13-18 can bookmark the click CEOP service or add it as an application to find information about online safety.



The service includes a dedicated facility for reporting instances of suspected grooming or inappropriate sexual behaviour

Ashleigh Hall, 17, was kidnapped raped and murdered by a man posing as a teenager whom she had met through Facebook

London:

After months of pressure to improve its online safety features, social networking site Facebook in Britain has added a new internet application to report suspected predatory adults. An automatic advertisement for the service will appear on the homepage of users aged 13 to 18, encouraging them to add the facility on their Facebook profile.

The application is a joint initiative between the website and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre, which tackles the sexual abuse of youngsters, including "grooming" through the Internet. Users will be able to bookmark the Click CEOP service or add it as an application to find information about online safety.

CEOP centre chief executive Jim Gamble said they knew from speaking to offenders that a visible deterrent could protect young people on the web. Calls for the inclusion of a "panic button" for youngsters grew in Britain earlier this year after the conviction of a serial rapist who used the site to pose as a young boy to lure and murder a teenage girl.

"There is no single silver bullet to making the Internet safer but... we have developed a new way of helping young people stay safe online," Joanna Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said. "It is only through the constant and concerted efforts of the industry, police, parents and young people themselves that we can all keep safe online."

Britain's crime prevention minister James Broken shire said, "It's a sad fact that we are now seeing more cases where sex offenders are using social networking sites to conceal their identities in order to contact children."

"While this solution provides help, it is also vital that the government continues to work with the police and parents to educate children about the dangers they may face online."