Facebook refuses to commit to anti-paedophile panic button

In talks with the home secretary, Alan Johnson, Facebook has stated that it has no “objection in principle” to installing an anti-paedophile panic button on its main site. However, it has not committed itself to doing so, despite this week’s outcry over the murder of Ashleigh Hall by a convicted sex attacker she met on the site.

The social networking site has claimed that its alternative to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre’s (CEOP) button had been developed “by analysing millions of reports submitted by users over the years” and reiterated its position that it would consider giving users links to CEOP away from the main Facebook site in its “safety centre” area, but only after they had used the existing Facebook reporting system.

Facebook has agreed to a high level meeting with CEOP in Washington on 12 April to discuss this issue further.