Following hot on the heels of last week’s Byron Report, which outlined recommendations for the welfare of children interacting with the Internet and virtual worlds, Media Guardian reports that the British Home Office is to push social networking sites to improve the prominence of their safety guidelines and user conduct warnings.
UK Home Office looking to improve safety levels and warning notices on social networking sites. Credit: Flattop341/Flickr.
Specifically, the Home Office taskforce on child protection is expected to publish its recommendations some time this week, which will task social networks such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo to integrate obvious links to child-related off-site support organisations along with more defined applications through which users can report network bullying and abuse.
The report will also call for social networks to play a more active role in warning users against committing acts of “unacceptable behaviour,” during visits while also reinforcing the knowledge that the network is able to track and punish wrongdoers through the recording of individual ISP (Internet service provider) addresses.
Other features expected to be highlighted for inclusion or redefined focus include users being able to quickly reach emergency services in the case of extreme circumstance, along with an age verification gate and a page graphic displaying whether a user profile is open to a public search.
The Home Office would also want privacy settings to be widened across any and all communication-based applications hosted by the networks as well as users also being made aware of the possible dangers (i.e. identify theft) of posting too much personal information to their profile pages.
Of course, the social networks themselves are aware of the potential risks associated with misuse of their services and have already moved to incorporate some of the Home Office’s outlines.
For example, Facebook requires that users choose whether their network profile can be retrieved by online search engines, while Bebo’s user profiles are automatically set to a default ‘private’ state that the user must then change if they so wish.
Other Home Office recommendations likely to appear include better directions for users when and if they decide to cancel their network profile, clearer definition on how a user’s personal data will (or will not) be used by the network, and the introduction of content restriction for those users below the age of 18.
The Home Office taskforce’s report was created alongside safety officers from the likes of Facebook, Bebo and Google as well as campaign organisations and government representatives.
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