Facebook has been slammed by child protection campaigners for prioritising commercial gain over children’s needs.
The Facebook founder and chief executive has been called upon to publish its internal assessments of the risks young people face on its services in a letter with 59 signatories including the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Child Rescue Coalition in the UK.
“The company must do significantly better to regain the trust of parents and child protection professionals, and most importantly, to ensure its product decisions contribute to rather than compromise children’s safety and wellbeing,” said the letter.
The Guardian reports that Zuckerberg has been asked to take “five steps to address concerns over its approach to protecting children on its eponymous social media platform”
Those steps are:
- Share all its internal research on the impact its platforms have on children’s wellbeing.
- Set out what research has been conducted on how the company’s services contribute to child sexual abuse.
- Publish risk assessments of how its platforms affect children.
- Provide details of an internal reputational review of its products.
- Review the child protection implications of encrypted messaging.
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