Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter Announces Nationwide
Agreement with Facebook
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter
and 49 other states and jurisdictions today announced that
Facebook has agreed to take steps to better protect children
from predators and inappropriate content on its web site.
The agreement is similar to one reached with MySpace in January,
in which MySpace agreed to head a task force to explore and
develop age and identity verification technology for social
networking sites. Facebook will now participate in that task
force, which will present its recommendations by the end of
2008.
The changes agreed to by Facebook include:
Providing automatic warning messages when a child is in danger
of giving out personal information to an unknown adult.
Restricting the ability of users to change their listed ages.
Acting more aggressively to remove inappropriate content and
groups from the site.
Requiring third party vendors to adhere to Facebook’s safety and
privacy guidelines.
More prominently displaying safety tips, and requiring users
under 18 to affirm they have read those tips when they sign up.
“Agreements with social networking sites are important tools to
protect children from on-line predators,” said Carter. “But
Indiana law now takes matters a vital step further, by providing
penalties for those who would use the Internet to lure young
victims.”
Senate Enrolled Act 258 will take effect July 1, 2008. It will
prohibit a registered sex offender convicted of certain crimes
involving children from knowingly using social networking web
sites, instant messaging programs or chat room programs that the
offender knows include children. The law will require them to
submit their email addresses and usernames to the Registry and
to notify the Registry within 72 hours if they obtain new or
revised usernames or email addresses. Failure to provide updated
information will be a Class D felony.
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