Facebook Under Fire Again For Failure To Protect Children From Sexual Predators

Allowing the spread of Fake News, reported abuses of power, and now, failing to protect the rights of children from sexual exploitation. It seems Facebook’s troubles are stacking up. In a recent report, it was found that the social media site had failed to comply with its own promises a year ago when it was first made aware that pedophiles were using the platform to exchange sexually suggestive photos of children.

The BBC had made a report last year about how sexual predators were using Facebook pages in order to communicate and where illicit photos were being circulated. Now, the publication has released another report indicating that Facebook did not follow through with its promises.

As the BBC piece reads, up to 80 percent of the photos that were reported by the publication at the time have yet to be removed from the social media site. Now, Damian Collins, the UK House of Commons media committee has gotten involved to express his doubts if Facebook was even making an effort to moderate the content that goes through its platform.

What makes the whole debacle even worse for Facebook is the fact that the reporters who brought the matter to its attention were reported to the police by the social media site. In essence, Facebook wanted the people trying to protect children behind bars instead of offering to help them do their jobs. So far, the social network has yet to issue a statement to address such a gross misconduct, but its UK policy director, Simon Milner did provide TechCrunch a statement.

“We have carefully reviewed the content referred to us and have now removed all items that were illegal or against our standards,” Milner’s statement said. “This content is no longer on our platform. We take this matter extremely seriously and we continue to improve our reporting and take-down measures. Facebook has been recognized as one of the best platforms on the internet for child safety.”