Facebook had previously said it would not install a "panic button" on its
main pages for users to report suspected paedophiles ... Mr Gamble said
he could not understand why Facebook would not agree to adopt the button
on every page as it was a free way to "help save some children".
Yeah, because a "tell the cops this user is a paedophile" button on every page sounds totally reasonable. Perhaps it'll look nice alongside "report user as terrorist" and "accuse user of dealing drugs" buttons.
Free to whom? I don't know how much it costs to make a regional UI alteration to Facebook, but I suspect that Mt Gamble doesn't either, and I doubt that it's free.
I presume it can only help to save children if it results in the conviction of a paedophile. How many have been convicted as a result of the button on Bebo or elsewhere?
Last week Mr Gamble announced the agency had received 252 complaints about Facebook during the first three months of the year - with 40% of them about the potential "grooming" of children.
He said the complaints had come via e-mails and people using other means to complain to the centre as they could not do so via Facebook.
So people who wanted to complain to CEOP did so by emailing CEOP rather than Facebook. What's wrong with that? Or is Mr Gamble implying that it is impossible to send a complaint to Facebook, or that Facebook will not act on an allegation?
Finally, the sad story of Miss Hall suggests that the real problem is not the absence of a button, but the difficulty in identifying the likes of Peter Chapman as potential rapists and murderers in the first place.
Maybe Facebook should provide CEOP's button, but CEOP has so far failed to make good case.
