Facebook falsely advertises the safety of its social network and fails to respond to complaints about obscene content and sexual predators in a timely manner, says the New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo's office has launched an investigation into Facebook, charging that the site is rife with "widespread" pornographic content and that minors are easily and regularly contacted by adults trolling for sex. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has sent a letter (PDF) to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg detailing its complaints, along with a subpoena for company documents."My office is concerned that Facebook's promise of a safe web site is not consistent with its performance in policing its site and responding to complaints," Cuomo said in a statement issued yesterday. "Parents have a right to know what their children will encounter on a web site that is aggressively marketed as safe."
The OAG launched a preliminary review of Facebook over the past several weeks by posing as underage users between the ages of 12 and 14, and discovered "deficiencies that stand in contrast to the reassuring statements made on the web site and by company officials." Specifically, the OAG's undercover accounts were approached almost immediately by adults clearly looking for something more than friendship, and the accounts continued to receive repeated messages along the lines of "i'd love to get off on cam for you hun ;P" and "call me if u want to do sex with me [number deleted] ok." The OAG says that several other undercover accounts received solicitations of a "more graphic nature" that it prefers not to repeat.
Read More
