Facebook: Daily Mail should name child abuse network

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 11 Mar 2010 at 12:09

Facebook has called for the social network at the centre of the Daily Mail's child abuse investigation to be named.

The Daily Mail yesterday printed a story claiming that an undercover reporter posing as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook was besieged with sexual approaches from men. The newspaper subsequently corrected the story, replacing the mention of Facebook with an unnamed social network.

A spokeswoman for Facebook today told PC Pro that it's “ridiculous” that the real social-networking site in the piece has not been named.

“The real issue here that no-one has mentioned is why hasn’t the platform that this is happening on been named? There is a social-networking site out there where this is happening and it’s ridiculous… they [the Daily Mail] should name it. Let them defend their position and take the flak.”

The article claimed that the undercover investigator was approached within 90 seconds by a middle-aged man who "wanted to perform a sex act in front of me".

“We knew it wasn’t Facebook as under-18s cannot receive messages from over-18s they don’t know on the site," said the Facebook spokesperson. "It is one of our security measures.”

The Daily Mail was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

Facebook said it's considering all legal possibilities.

“It’s too soon to tell,” said Facebook’s spokesperson, when asked what action the site would pursue. “There is a limit to what we can take. It’s now about winding down the damage done to our brand”.