Report: Facebook Asks Users If Child Predators Should Be Allowed

Facebook asked several thousand of its users in a survey what “rules” the site should follow in deciding whether or not to allow a hypothetical scenario in which “an adult man” sent a “private message” asking a “14-year-old girl for sexual pictures.” According to the Times of London, the multiple-choice answers for the scenario included “Facebook decides the rules on its own” and “Facebook users decide the rules by voting.” The survey then asked users how they would handle the message “in an ideal world.” The options included allowing the content and “I would not mind seeing it,” allowing the content “but I don’t want to see it,” and stopping the content. Critics said the survey suggested Facebook might tolerate the illegal exploitation of children, or could “create the impression in people’s minds this is about a choice, not about the law.” Facebook said it had stopped the survey. A spokesman told the The Times: “We have prohibited child grooming on Facebook since our earliest days; we have no intention of changing this and we regularly work with the police to ensure that anyone found acting in such a way is brought to justice.”