As a Facebook user, I was appalled to recently learn of the extent of child pornography on Facebook. I was even more disturbed to learn that Facebook does not currently have a comprehensive or effective strategy to prevent or address crimes against children on the site.
Keeping children safe from sexual abuse should be of primary concern for Facebook as a responsible, ethical, publicly traded, and law-abiding company. Therefore, I ask Facebook to take the following steps:
- Devote sufficient financial, technological, and personnel resources technology necessary to prevent these images, videos, and profiles from being posted, at no less than 0.05% of annual profits;
- Establish a Facebook-initiated user reporting system for child abuse material within the existing abuse reporting system, with an option to directly contact law enforcement and a transparent strategy to investigate those reports;
- Develop and maintain an open channel of communication with INTERPOL, the FBI, and the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, including designated Facebook liaisons to all entities;
- Remove files of identified child pornography from Facebook servers, so that those those images are no longer accessible via direct linking or cached web browsers; and
- Designate a Facebook staff member whose sole duties are oversight of Facebook's child pornography reduction efforts, including technology and software acquisition, collaboration with law enforcement and NGOs, and prevention efforts.
As a Facebook user, I strongly encourage you to take these steps. By refusing to take action to address child pornography on Facebook, the company will be implicated in the facilitation of this heinous crime, and thus alienate millions of users.
