14 DAY TRIAL // Online safety has always been an issue, yet even today, it looks more like a “religious” battle rather than one based on facts and proper studies. This may have been one of the reasons why most companies had a more relaxed attitude only intervening after something bad had happened. Now though, Facebook is taking a more active approach and has created the Facebook Safety Advisory Board, a group made up of five organizations in the field from the US and Europe, Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). The group will be tasked with helping the social network come up with better measures and policies regarding online safety.
The group will start by advising with the overhaul of the help content on safety-related issues available in the Facebook Help Center. The social network wants to make the information available a useful and comprehensive tool focused on the three groups which are likely to be the most interested, parents, teachers and teens.
“We believe that the only way to keep kids safe online is for everyone who wants to protect them to work together,” Elliot Schrage, Vice-President of Global Communications and Public Policy at Facebook, said. “The formation of a board to advise specifically on safety issues is a positive, innovative and collaborative step towards creating a more robust safety environment, and we are thrilled that such a well-respected, trusted group of organizations has joined us in this endeavor.”
Facebook plans to meet with the group regularly to consult on safety issues if problems arise but also to review the existing policies, material and the steps the social network takes to protect its users. Facebook claims that the matter has always been taken very seriously and points out that it already has a collaboration agreement with some 49 Attorneys General in the US.