Facebooks Porn Cops – What This Means To Your Kids and Teens

“The Nipple Rule”. “The Fully Exposed Butt Rule”. “The Crack Rule”.

Yes, those are Facebook’s semi-formal policies about images that are posted on their site. Yoursphere shared highlights of this story written by Newsweek in our parent newsletter. Since that inclusion, I’ve thought more about what this policy means to my kids, and what it means to yours.

Newsweek writer Nick Summers states that these employees are key weapons in Facebook’s efforts to maintain its image as a place that’s safe for corporate advertisers, and a place for upscale professionals. Facebook hopes to widen its appeal by requiring everyone to sign up under their real name and to literally create a service for everyone.

I’ve known that Facebook wants to be utilized by everyone, but I had not read, nor been told specifically that it’s core focus – and the
driving force between its key employee weapons – would be focused on ”corporate advertisers” and “upscale professionals”.

So where does that leave our kids?

If they have a profile on Facebook, it leaves them in a middle of a community that allows “a young woman in panties only, covering her
breasts with her hands. “That’s pretty close.” Facebook employee Simon Axten says. In this photo there’s no visible areola, he
decides, so it stays.  The next photo is a male clad only in a black thong and angel wings. Axten OKs the picture.”  (I wonder which corporate ad appears next to that photo…)

In case you were wondering, bare breasts with our without visible areola, are not allowed in Yoursphere. Read more about our member conduct and terms of use.

Police departments are learning that Facebook accounts can offer rich information about criminal suspects. When Facebook was young, most police requests were about underage drinking. “Now it’s murders, missing kids – basically all the worst things you can think of” according to Max Kelly a former FBI computer forensics analyst who now works for Facebook.

Teen drinking and runaways will be a part of our kid’s lives and subsequently their online communities. But murders and criminals now a part of our kids online experience and community?

Parents, you need to know.

Category: Safety