State wins new protections for children on Facebook

Facebook might make it easier to connect with other people, but concerns are being raised about how susceptible people are to dangerous predators who can view their personal information.\nAddressing this issue, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter has announced a nationwide agreement with Facebook to take steps toward better protecting children from predators as well as inappropriate content on the Web site. \nStaci Schneider, chief communications officer and press secretary from the office of the Attorney General, said the improvements to Facebook are similar to the agreement made with MySpace in January, and is a work in progress. \n“We have been working with MySpace over the past year or so to enhance the Web site’s protections,” she said. “It resulted in an agreement with Facebook and we feel it’s very important.”\nWhen it comes to protecting children from “inappropriate content,” there is no concrete definition. \n“The agreement doesn’t specifically note what it might mean by that,” Schneider said. “But the Web sites will be required to use technological tools to identify inappropriate content with minors.”\nTo further help in keeping harmful material off Facebook, users under the age of 18 will soon be required to affirm that they have read newly displayed safety tips on the Web site. A potential problem with this is knowing if the users are actually reading the tips given to them or not. \n“It’s going to be looked into,” Schneider said. “Only so many things can be done. You can only hope they can take responsibility. Facebook is currently working on developing a tool to get this.” \nSchneider said she could only hope that parents would take responsibility as well in monitoring what their kids are getting into on the Internet.\nBloomington Police Department Sgt. Jeff Canada sees the importance of laws like this one to protect people. \n“It’s paramount,” Canada said. “It’s the police department’s job to do whatever they can to protect the people. Any restrictions put in place will no doubt help.”\nThe recent incident at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis involving an unknown student who created a fake Facebook profile of Dean of Students Tim Puntarelli doesn’t directly fall under this new agreement, Schneider said.\n“(The agreement) could help reduce this sort of thing from happening but it’s not directly related,” she said. \nRoncalli spokesperseon Greg Otolski also welcomed the possibility that the agreement may help to some degree.\n“The. agreement doesn’t really address situations like the one at Roncalli,” Otolski said. “Although I have no problems with them removing inappropriate content.”