14 DAY TRIAL // The online safety of children worldwide is in question due to an ever-increasing number of attacks from various suspicious individuals, as well as from peers who have a larger inclination towards technology. On that background, 17 companies owning social media websites got together in Europe and signed on Tuesday an EU pact against “cyber-bullying,” which would basically put an end to harassment and grooming (the term used to describe the practice in which adults engaged in conversations with underage children for the purpose of abusing them later).
The European Commission (EC) said that, in Europe, the number of teenagers who used social media sites was expected to grow to 107.4 million by 2012, which would provide groomers with an increased space in which to exercise their sick obsessions. “It is an important step forward toward making our children's clicks on social networking sites safer in Europe,” Viviane Reding, who is the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, says in a statement.
The signed agreement that none of the social media outlets present, including MySpace and Facebook, would offer the possibility for people to search the accounts belonging to teens under the age of 18 on the pages of the respective sites was among the main strong points of the new accord. Also, these services will all introduce an easy-to-find and accessible “report abuse” button, with the aim of making it easier for teens to report inappropriate contact initiated by an older person or one of their peers.
In addition, all the accounts belonging to people under the age of 18 will be set to private, so as to eliminate the possibility for groomers to search their “prey” easily. This will be one of the standard safety features that teens will benefit from, without even knowing.
The other sites that have been involved in the new agreement include Bebo, Dailymotion, Giovani, Google and YouTube, Hyves, Netlog, Nasza-klaza, One, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake / Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap. Moreover, the British Home Office reported taking similar action last April, for the purpose of preventing inappropriate contact between adults and young children or teenagers. In the Unites States, 49 State Attorney Generals signed similar pacts with Facebook and MySpace.
This level of concern comes after MySpace's last week decision, when more than 90,000 offenders were banned from the site, upon being proven guilty of trying to get underage children to meet with them. This high number of perpetrators placed authorities worldwide on the edge, and the EC decided to take firm action to ensure such situations would never reoccur.