NSPCC: Facebook is as dangerous as letting 11-year-olds go to nightclub

FACEBOOK is as dangerous for children as letting them go to a nightclub at the age of 11, the head of the NSPCC has said.

Chief executive Peter Wanless, who has a 15-year-old son, said social media had created ‘a playground for predators’ seeking to take advantage of vulnerable youngsters. He said: ‘There are risks that children and teens face on social media sites that are akin to letting them go into a nightclub. That is why we think it is critically important serious attention is now paid to this issue.’

Internet giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, have come under increasing pressure to do more to protect their young users. This follows a number of suicides linked to online bullying and fears over paedophiles contacting youngsters via social media.

The NSPCC said the sites are not doing enough to tackle child grooming, hate speech and cyber-bullying and called for urgent government action.

The charity wants universal minimum standards to be enshrined in law and enforced by an independent regulator.

This includes ‘safe’ accounts for under18s, which have stricter privacy settings and better controls over what they see, grooming and bullying alerts and dedicated child safety moderators.

Mr Wanless said: ‘Currently, concern only comes when a young person is groomed or takes their own life.’

Facebook rules state you must be 13 to open an account but users can simply enter a fake date of birth to sign up.

A new NSPCC report reveals a sharp rise in the number of children reporting sex abuse and online bullying to its counselling service Childline in the last year.

The helpline gave 12,248 counselling sessions about online safety and abuse in total, and of those 5,103 mentioned cyberbullying – up 12 per cent on the previous year. More than 2,100 were counselled about child sexual exploitation on the internet.

In the last year, 5,653 child sex crimes had an online element – a rise of 44 per cent, the charity said. These include grooming children for rape and persuading them to share indecent images.

Mr Wanless told the Sunday Times he was ‘fed up with sitting in meetings hearing warm words’ from ministers about tougher regulation, saying the sites could not be trusted to ensure child safety.

He said: ‘Enough is enough, let us have some clear standards. There is a huge sense from the public that protection for children online is nothing like good enough.’

Facebook recently pledged to hire more moderators.