NSPCC Head Says Facebook Use by Children Is as Dangerous as Letting Them Go to the Nightclub
The head of Britain's leading children's protection charity warned that letting kids have their own Facebook accounts is as risky as allowing them to go to a nightclub at the age of 11. The warning came following rising cases of child abuse, cyber bullying and sexual grooming on the internet.
Peter Wanless, chief executive of National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), said that the online world had created a "playground for predators" who sought to take advantage of young and vulnerable children. He is concerned that social media sites aren't doing enough to combat these dangers.
Wanless based his remark on the sharp rise of calls they received from youngsters. Childline, NSPCC's 24-hour helpline, counseled more than 12,248 children last year. Of that number, 5,103 reported cyber-bullying which is 12 percent more than those reported in 2015.
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Childline also gave counseling sessions to 2,100 children about sexual abuse online, up by 44 percent from the previous year. These included sexual grooming, harassment and engaging in sexually explicit activity online. One 15-year-old complained that she received obscene messages from her youth group leader who got her number from Facebook.
Since Facebook wasn't taking any measures to protect children, Wanless said it is incumbent for the government to take action. He is pushing for a law that will impose universal minimum standards on social media which will be enforced by an independent regulator. This should include higher privacy settings, bullying alerts and child safety moderators.
Facebook's poor monitoring system was traced to the lack of content moderators. There are only 4,500 moderators that monitor 1.94 billion users. A company insider intimated they often had "just 10 seconds" to decide what to delete because the site has become "too big, too quickly."
Moreover, based on an internal company rulebook that was leaked, Facebook was found to be applying lenient standards in flushing out vile and hate posts, thereby allowing users to upload explicit photos, self-harm videos, animal torture and threats against women.
