New York State Subpoenas Facebook Over User Safety

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced that his office is investigating the on line site Facebook over claims by the company concerning safety measures that they say are in place on the site.

The Attorney General sent a letter along with a subpoena asking for documents. In the letter he warned the executives of Facebook that in a preliminary review it was revealed that there are significant defects not only in the site's safety controls, but in the company's response to complaints as well. He states that the deficiencies that they found are in direct contrast to the security statements on the web site and those made by the officials of the company.

Over the past few weeks, investigators conducted undercover tests of the safety on Facebook. They posed as underage users and they were solicited by adult sexual predators again and again. Not only that, they were also able, as underage users, to access pornographic images and videos. One of the most disturbing things the investigation bought out was the fact that Facebook either was slow to respond to complaints made by the investigators, or did not respond at all. In this case, the investigators posed as parents asking the sire to take action against predators who had been harassing their children on the site.

During the investigation, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) set up multiple profiles as users between the ages of 12 and 14. Almost immediately after opening the accounts, the agents received many sexual solicitations all from adults sent to several of the underage profiles, including:

"u look too hot....... can i c u online (webcam)? im avl at . . ."
"I'd love to get off on cam for you hun ; P"
"do you like sex?"
"if u want call me [number deleted] or u can give me ur number?"
"call me if u want to do sex with me [number deleted] ok"
And these are only the mild ones.

They also complained to Facebook about inappropriate content and communications on the site. Facebook did take down many of the images within a week of the complaints, but complaints about user groups that are hosting hardcore porn were ignored. These are still on the site as late as today.