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."

Comments

Age of majority

[NoobixCube]

I've always thought the broad-sweeping American-influenced use of age 18 on the internet is amazingly arrogant and blind. 18 is the arbitrary age of majority in some western cultures. In other western cultures, it's 21. In Japan (and perhaps other Asian countries, though I don't know), it's 20. Age of majority is probably even lower in some countries, and even higher in others.

except

[nguy]

Except that the age of consent is actually lower in many countries, even if their age of majority is the same or higher.

So, for example, in many places in Europe, the age of majority is 18, but the age of consent is 15. Even in the US, there are state-by-state discrepancies.

Re:except

[NoobixCube]

I was going to mention age of consent, but I thought it would seem like too much of a pointless rant if I went off on that tangent. In Australia, some states say 16, some say 17, and Victoria actually has a special provision, where the age of consent is 16, but if either or both people are under the age of consent, then there can't be more than two years' age difference. Strange, but at least it stops people from becoming sex offenders if they're 16 with a 15 year old girlfriend or boyfriend.

Re:Sound Bite Security

[AikonMGB]

Bingo! As your kids are growing up, do not give them a computer with net access in their own room. Keep an eye on them; they are in uncharted territory and are learning as they go. Help them learn some of the dangers and pitfalls of the internet.

As they grow up, you can gradually give them more privacy with computer and internet issues (as you should be giving them in other things as well), easing them into "adulthood." I don't understand how people expect an individual that has been sheltered her entire life to magically and suddenly be ready to take on the internet at midnight on her 18th birthday.

You have to gradually ease them into it, so that by the time they turn 18, they are ready for the internet. Because you helped to prepare them, their 18th birthday will simply be an official sign-post, but they won't notice any difference at all, since you've already reached the point where you trust your children to be responsible.

Aikon-