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Facebook Agrees To User Safety Plan
Facebook has reached an agreement with the attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia to develop and enhance controls to protect minors from inappropriate content. This follows a similar commitment from MySpace several months ago. The lone holdout in each case was Texas. News.com notes:
"In the deal, the social network has agreed to develop age verification technology, send warning messages when an under-18 user may be giving personal information to an unknown adult, restrict the ability for people to change their ages on the site, and keep abreast of inappropriate content and harassment on the site. While the agreement is with U.S. state authorities, Kelly said that the tools deployed will apply to Facebook's international users as well. More than half of the site's 70 million users are outside the U.S."
You know, any time its 49 to 1 on states in America, you can be pretty sure that Texas is sitting out. Or perhaps Utah. Just once, I'd like to have a boring, milquetoast state like Rhode Island try to have a bit of a personality. "We're not a state! We're a Commonwealth! And we won't be having with any of your Internets!"
Hey, it could happen.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Will other countries also get these benefits? Maybe Austria?
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You then did proceed to mention age of consent and you were correct in your thinking that it might end up a pointless rant.
Well done.
You're nothing; like me.
The reality of moves like this is that unless they require some kind of objective identification or background checks on every single user, minors will start accounts saying that they are older and pedophiles will start accounts saying that they are younger. The amusing conclusion is that pedophiles will only be hitting on eachother.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
You know... it's not like there's a really authoritative guide anywhere.