Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Facebooking Deemed Hazardous to Your Health

The attorney general's office issued a subpoena yesterday against Facebook demanding all articles outlining the security that the social network promises its users. Complaints were filed that Facebook is misleading in promoting the site as an environment where teenagers and children are safe from sexual predators.

According to a New York Times article, no charges have been files but Facebook is taking the allegations very seriously. In a letter to Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook's chief executive officer, Andrew M. Cuomo, New York's attorney general, said "Facebook has the right to operate any type of Web site it deems fit. It does not have the right to represent that its site is safe and that it promptly responds to complaints when those statements are not accurate."

Cuomo's office is currently investigating the actual safety and reaction time of Facebook when inappropriate material is passed through the site by creating false profiles of teenage girls. Every time the girl is inappropriately contacted by a possible predator, the investigators report the instance to Facebook. In most cases, Facebook failed to respond and the predator was allowed to keep their profile.

No comments: