After an awful lot of prevarication, discussion and general "to-ing and fro-ing" Facebook has finally created a "panic" button for younger users to report inappropriate behaviour to CEOP.
For those of you who don’t know CEOP is the UK Government run Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and is "dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children". That sounds a somewhat grand ideal and more than a little off putting so why not visit their site to see the excellent work they carry out. More importantly, you will be able to see how they do it.
Basically today’s joint announcement by CEOP and Facebook is about an app that places a link to CEOP on your Facebook page. From there you can get advice about how to deal with inappropriate behaviour, the different types of behaviour and who you can tell. This isn’t just for younger users (there’s different age groups from 5 to 16), there’s also sections for both parents and teachers. You can browse through what’s available HERE.
For more details about the release check out THIS BBC article which gives a little more explanation.
This is a great help to all involved but please remember, technology alone can not keep your children safe online. This app is only useful if the children understand both what is inappropriate behaviour and recognise when they are being subjected to it.
The best way to help them is for parents to follow the instructions in the Bertha Guide to Parental Control. Once you’ve done so make sure you monitor which web sites your children are visiting, taking special care to note how often they visit each site, how long they stay at each site and if there’s any change in their behaviour.
Get your copy of the Guide by clicking the button below and start keeping your children safe today.