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Bebo kids get one-click link to cops
21-09-2006
by Charlie Taylor

Bebo is hoping to launch a new advanced reporting service in Ireland which will allow users to report illegal or suspicious activity directly to Gardai.

The move follows the launch of a similar service in the UK on Wednesday and comes in the wake of criticism from the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) over the website's failure to implement a stricter registration process which would make Bebo safer for younger users.

A recent report in the British consumer watchdog magazine Computing Which? found widespread pornography, bullying and inappropriate advertising on social networking sites such as Bebo and NCTE, and a number of teachers and parents organisations had expressed fears of a rise in "cyber bullying" by schoolchildren using such services.

The advanced reporting system, which was launched in the UK this week, is an ongoing collaboration with the law enforcement agency CEOP (Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre).

The system lets users report suspicious and illegal behaviour of a sexual nature directly to the police by clicking on a "Report Abuse" button which takes the user through a step-by-step process to file a police report. This allows law enforcement agencies to quickly respond to and investigate alleged offenders.

Dr Rachel O'Connell, Bebo's Cork-born head of Corporate & Social Responsibility, told ENN that the reporting system will act as a significant deterrent to users with ill-intent and will enable authorities to detect, investigate and prosecute those seeking to use the website for "grooming" purposes.

Dr O'Connell, who is considered to be one of Europe's foremost experts in internet safety, was appointed by Bebo in July with the express purpose of implementing strategies to make the website a safer environment for young people to communicate online. She is due to visit Ireland shortly to speak to the Internet Advisory Board and law enforcement agencies with a view to launching the reporting system locally so that Irish internet users can avail of it.

Bebo already has a reporting system in place which is policed by its US team. This handles reports and forwards them on to Gardai in Ireland where necessary. However, Dr O'Connell is hopeful that the site will be able to offer its new user-friendly system here soon.

"We're the first social networking company to embed a reporting system within its service, which not only allows users to send a report to the police, but also retains a copy so that we can initiate the process of preserving key evidence. Bebo is actively looking at ways to harness the capabilities of our systems to work more effectively and swiftly with law enforcement," Dr O'Connell told ENN.

The new reporting system follows on from the launch of anti-bullying measures introduced by the company last week. These include a number of tools which allow users to vet comments and images posted by other users before they become visible on the site. In addition, users can also block specific individuals from contacting them or posting comments on their homepages.

O'Connell said the recent measures were part of a strategy to make Bebo "a hostile environment to users with ill-intent."