Increased safety for young Facebook users
Young Facebook users across the UK are the focus of a new initiative being launched today by the UK’s national centre for child protection – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and Facebook.
For the first time all Facebook users in the UK can have direct access to CEOP’s advice and reporting centre – ClickCEOP – from their homepage giving them the very latest help on online safety as well as a dedicated facility for reporting instances of suspected grooming or inappropriate behavior.
Access to the ClickCEOP button will be provided via an application that users can add or bookmark so that it appears on their homepage as not only a constant source of help and reassurance for them but also as a strong visual signal to their friends, family and others that they are in control online.
The application will be backed by a new CEOP page that, when “liked’, will look to engage with young people to help raise the profile of online safety.
The move is also being supported by extensive wide spread advertising on Facebook that will encourage take up of the application. This will include an automatic advert-message appearing on every homepage of users aged between 13-18 years inviting them to add the application.
The initiative is the result of a new collaboration between CEOP and Facebook that combines Facebook expertise in technology and connecting people and organizations on their service with CEOP’s knowledge of internet safety and security as well as its role as the national centre for child protection.