Guest comment: Twitter needs to step up to the mark to protect children
- Added:
- Nov 03, 2009
Can Twitter be a content provider with a conscience? Chat Moderators Director Rob Marcus gives guidance for the social networking site as it becomes a content provider rather than a mediator.
A recent investigation into the social networking site Twitter has revealed the serious consequences of leaving user generated content un-policed and un-moderated. The popular site which claims it is a “content provider” and not a “mediator” has come under fire for being a breeding ground for paedophilia. Chat Moderators, the longest running social media moderation company, gives its reaction to this report.
Rob Marcus, director of Chat Moderators comments, “Sexual predation problems will always be worse on un-moderated sites that are attractive to children so it was only a matter of time before these serious reports began surfacing around Twitter. For an organisation with over four million users in the UK alone to operate without due regard to child safety concerns, and indeed to distance itself from them by asking to be viewed as a ‘content provider’ and not a ‘mediator’ is morally suspect ”
Chat Moderators explains what steps Twitter should be taking in order to ensure that it is not being exploited by child sex predators :
Before anything else, Twitter needs to change how it sees itself – from “content provider” to “content provider with a conscience” and this means taking its responsibility as a user generated content site seriously.
Most importantly, it needs to be more honest with itself in its assessment of the risks to children in its present configuration. If necessary it should ask advice from online child protection agencies.
Moderating a forum of millions of users is no easy task and may not even be necessary, but improving its ‘help resources’ and ‘FAQ’ sections, perhaps with links to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and certainly with an improved process for complaining about content, would be a good place to begin.
It should look to conduct a risk assessment and consult with independent child protection experts to make necessary changes.
In conducting its risk assessment it may find improvements can be made to the registration process that would not harm usage but would help deter and possibly track, child sex predators.
Marcus summarises, “Twitter has a moral and social responsibility to ensure that the risks of predation are properly assessed and acted upon. There is plenty of expertise they can call upon to ensure that the right decisions are made; decisions that are right for Twitter and right for the children who are increasingly attracted to it. If it continues as it is and takes no action, the site will risk being marked as an attractive hunting ground for sexual predators.”
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