Facebook, New York Attorney General Reach Agreement On Enforcing Safeguards

Tuesday, October 16th 2007, 2:11 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced an agreement with social networking Web site Facebook to enforce safeguards against obscene content and sexual predators using the site.

The agreement calls for Facebook to respond and begin addressing complaints of nudity or pornography or unwelcome contact within 24 hours of receiving them, and to report to the complainant within 72 hours on how it will respond.

It also calls for Facebook, which has about 47 million users, to allow someone independent _ and approved by Cuomo's office _ to report for two years on its compliance with the new safeguards.

``These social networking sites are attractive. We want to make sure they're safe,'' Cuomo said at a news conference. ``Facebook will have the safest interactions of its kind on the Internet.''

Under the agreement, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company will have to post the safety procedures on its Web site.

``We care deeply about our Facebook users and today we pledge a solution,'' said Chris Kelly, the chief privacy officer for Facebook, who joined Cuomo in announcing the agreement. ``We believe that safety is an ongoing process.''

In response to a question, Kelly said Facebook receives tens of thousands of complaints a day, not all of them about inappropriate content. With the agreement, he said, complaints about unwelcome content will be pushed to the top of the queue.

Cuomo said he hoped that other social networking sites would follow Facebook's lead. He said his office was in discussions with other sites, but he declined to name them.