Facebook to Improve Safety, in Settlement with New York State Attorney General
Facebook had been under investigation by the New York State Attorney General and has reached an agreement:
To satisfy New York State prosecutors who accused Facebook Inc., the popular social networking Web site, of falsely advertising itself as a safe online environment, Facebook yesterday agreed to immediately post sterner warnings about the dangers to children using the site and to respond more speedily to complaints from users about inappropriate sexual messages.
The changes are part of a settlement with the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, whose office last month announced that it had been investigating whether the Web site misled users by promoting itself as a place where minors were safe from sexual predators.
Mr. Cuomo said the settlement would serve as a “new model” under which law enforcement and Internet companies could work together to protect children and recognize that they share responsibility to police illegal activity online.
However, as PC World reports, this agreement is not acceptable to all attorneys general:
Not all attorneys general were satisfied with the New York settlement. Late Tuesday Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that more needed to be done.
His office issued a statement calling for Facebook to add age and identity verification for users 18 and older, filtering technology that would weed out inappropriate content, and a variety of other steps to protect minors.
“New York’s settlement with Facebook is a step forward, but giant strides are needed to make the site safer,” Blumenthal said in the statement. “We will explore all options — including possible legal action.”