Facebook pedo-friendliness problem persists

IF

you want to protect your children, if you want to be a good parent, don’t let your kids use Facebook.

I know I’m going to make enemies by saying that. But Facebook just doesn’t care about your kids. That’s pretty obvious — again.

Last week, it came out that Facebook, in a poll, asked users if pedophiles should be able to ask kids for sexual pictures. Facebook backtracked after this news came out — saying the question was a “mistake.”

This isn’t the first time, or the hundredth, that it has made this very mistake.

“This kind of activity is and will always be completely unacceptable. We regularly work with authorities if [pedophiles are] identified,” Guy

Rosen, vice president of Facebook’s products, was quoted as saying.

Rosen was backpedaling fast because Facebook sent out a survey asking: “In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Facebook’s policies, how would you han- dle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-yearold girl for sexual pictures.”

One of the possible responses was: “This content should be allowed on Facebook, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it.”

Disgraceful, appalling and amazing that a publicly traded company that people let into their homes every day would have this kind of attitude. Anywhere but in the online world, this would warrant a punch in the nose.

But Facebook’s attitude in the survey isn’t surprising to me.

Back in 2012, I found myself in the middle of a crusade against Facebook’s casual attitude toward pedophilia. And I was shocked by the company’s indifference to what the children who use its site were being subjected to.

I didn’t start out on a crusade. A private detective I know who fights against child abuse asked me to contact Facebook because the company was refusing to take down a page that had the title: “Pedophile are People Too [sic].”

I figured this would be simple enough. Surely, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, which was planning a public stock offering at the time, didn’t realize the page was posted and would relent when a newspaper called.

Facebook didn’t. In fact, it pretty much told me to buzz off.

It said the page didn’t break its rules because there were no pictures. Facebook said the page was merely “controversial humour.” Yes, they spelled it the British way.

And Facebook didn’t care that pedophiles were “liking” the page, with one freak writing that “you know you [sic] skilled when you can fit 10 kids into 1 self storage box.”

After Facebook’s refusal to take down the page, I tried a different tactic. I started to call Facebook’s advertisers to see what they thought. And I requested that readers do the same.

The Texas tourism board was the first to pull its ads after I made thenGov. Rick Perry’s office aware of the “Pedophile Are People Too” page. Silversea, a cruise company, also pulled its ads immediately.

Apparently, many of my readers started calling advertisers, because Facebook started squealing.

In fact, one of my readers — the then-borough president of Staten Island — took up the cause, and he and his employees also called lots of Facebook’s advertisers. The results of this crusade were so good that Facebook eventually called the bor- ough president and begged him to stop calling advertisers.

My battle with Facebook lasted for three years.

But from what recently happened, it’s clear that Facebook didn’t learn its lesson. Its laissez-faire attitude toward stuff your children shouldn’t see is bad enough.

The whole truth, however, is even worse. Because of the enormous number of users and the fact that bad people can access the site 24 hours a day, Facebook is really unable to police itself — even though it’s trying more now than it used to.

Facebook either can’t — or doesn’t want to — keep the bad guys away.

During my campaign, I was contacted by people from around the world who were willing g to monitor Facebook’s site for inappropriate things. Because they were from everywhere, the time of day wasn’t an issue for them — to steal a phrase, “it’s daytime somewhere.”

Facebook did humor (not the British spelling) these volunteers somewhat but never enthusiastically.

The company really didn’t care to have anyone from anywhere interfere with its freewheeling fun.

No matter how much the company apologizes, the recent survey shows that Facebook is unable and unwilling to protect your children. So you have to.

You can take a page from my playbook and complain to advertisers. But the most effective protest is in your own home: Keep your kids off Facebook. Lloyd Blankfein ought to write a book. But I’m sure he won’t. The grand poobah of Goldman Sachs appears to be headed into retirement soon. And I’d pay to read all the tales of his exploits with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, a Goldman alum himself, serving during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Blankfein famously claimed that banks like Goldman were “doing God’s work.” It would be interesting to know what God and Paulson had Blankfein do during the crisis. From all the phone calls between Paulson and Blankfein back then, I think the Almighty didn’t want the stock market to go down. God apparently doesn’t short stocks.