Moderators of Facebook ‘blind to child users’

Facebook moderators are turning a blind eye to children under its age limit of 13, an undercover investigation has found. Moderators at a company subcontracted by the social media giant were told they could only close down an account if the child admits in posts they are under-age.

FACEBOOK moderators are turning a blind eye to children under its age limit of 13 even if they are self-harming, an undercover investigation has found.

At a company subcontracted by the social media giant to check content, moderators are told they can only take action to close down the account of a child if the child actually admits in posts they are under-age.

“We have to have an admission that the person is under-age. If not, we just pretend that we are blind and we don’t know what under-age looks like,” a trainer tells an undercover reporter posing as a prospective moderator for Facebook in the Channel 4 Dispatches investigation to be screened this evening.

Even if the content contains images of self-harm, moderators have to treat the under-age child as if they were an adult and send them advice about tackling self-harm rather than reporting their account.

“If this person was a kid, like a 10-year-old, we don’t care, we still action the ticket as if it were an adult,” says the trainer.

Half of 11- and 12-year-olds – some 700,000 children – have a social media profile, despite most sites setting a minimum age of 13, according to the regulator Ofcom. The Daily Telegraph is campaigning for a statutory duty of care to force the companies to protect children from online harm.

Facebook said it did not allow under -13s on its site and would take action if someone reported an under-age child to them. It said it was investigating why moderators acted as they did.

The film, which includes claims Facebook’s commercial drive to boost user numbers overrides safety concerns, focuses on CPL Resources, a Dublin contractor whose moderators decide if content should be deleted, ignored or marked as disturbing.

It reveals that violent content including graphic images and video of child abuse or assaults on children are allowed despite being flagged by users as inappropriate and requests for removal. Any video of “physical bullying” involving minors is allowed if it has a “condemnatory caption”, the reporter is told.

CLP Resources said it was investigating the allegations and had instigated refresher programmes for its trainers. ♦children as young as 11 will be taught about the dangers of knife crime. Every school in England was sent the onehour lesson plans by the Home Office ahead of the summer holidays.

‘We have to have an admission that the person is under-age. If not, we just pretend that we are blind’