Demand for Facebook to Protect Kids from Vile Posts Rises
Lobbyists are demanding for Facebook to do more to protect children from vile posts after an internal company rulebook was leaked outlining permissible posts considered inappropriate under prevailing social standards. It was also found out that kids can easily access offensive material through that social media platform.
Based on manuals leaked to the Guardian, users are allowed to share vile posts like explicit images, self-harm videos, animal torture and threats against women. On the other hand, users can also be led to websites on pornography, gambling and dangerous diet plans without Facebook condoning it.
Comments permitted by the company's guidance on threats of violence include: "To snap a bitch's neck, make sure to apply all your pressure to the middle of her throat." The phrase "Little girl needs to keep to herself before daddy breaks her face" is also allowed.
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Sexually explicit comments such as "I'm gonna f*** you" and "I'm gonna eat that pussy" as well as abuse like "F*** off and die" are also tolerated because they are not credible threats. Live streaming of self-harm is also permitted as Facebook "doesn't want to censor or punish people in distress."
Unless there is an element of "sadism or celebration," photos of kids suffering non-sexual physical abuse or bullying are just fine. "Would we tell children in the playground they can carry on with physical abuse as long as it's not sadistic or with a celebratory element?" Lauren Seager-Smith of charity Kidscape said sarcastically.
Meanwhile, it was also learned that vulnerable teenagers can access offensive and dangerous content like pornography and gambling websites just by typing their insecurities on the search bar. For example, typing the words "want to hide in a hole" leads to a website promoting cannabis as a way of stress-control.
One of the culprits reportedly is the lack of content moderators. There are only 4,500 moderators that monitor Facebook's 1.94 billion users or a ratio of 1:431,000. A company insider intimated they often had "just 10 seconds" to decide what to delete because the site has become "too big, too quickly."
