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Trenton
– Attorney General Anne Milgram today
unveiled an Internet Safety Icon designed
to allow users of social networking sites
to swiftly report inappropriate, abusive
or potentially illegal activities.
The Report Abuse! icon was created by the
Office of the Attorney General in cooperation
with a number of social networking sites.
It is designed to make it easier for Internet
users to identify and quickly report abuses
on-line, and establishes best practices
which define how social networking sites
should handle reports of abuse.
The
icon will direct complaints to social networking
site operators, who, under the best practices,
are required to review the reports and in
many cases refer them to appropriate law
enforcement agencies. It also allows users
to link to the CyberTip hotline of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
and provides users advice on when to immediately
report potential crimes to the police. It
also provides users general advice on surfing
the Web safely.
“We are bombarded with reports of
abusive and predatory behavior on social
networking sites and the failure of sites
to adequately respond to serious and significant
complaints,’’ Milgram said.
“We believe this new icon will allow
those who surf the net to be able to swiftly
report abuse and potential criminal behavior
by creating important on-line links and
blocking abusive visitors.’’
“Unfortunately,
sexual predators use social networking sites
to identify and contact potential victims
and social networking sites can be used
for cyber-bullying or cyber-harassment,’’
Milgram added. “Use of the icon will
empower users by giving them an easily recognizable
mechanism to quickly and easily report abusive
activity. This is meant to protect kids
and young adults and is a cooperative effort
with social networking sites to make them
safer.’’
Milgram
was joined today by representatives of myYearbook.com,
which was co-founded by Dave and Catherine
Cook of Montgomery, New Jersey. The Report
Abuse! safety icon is also going to be posted
by Community Connect, which owns and operates
five multi-cultural social networking sites
including Black Planet.com, MiGente.com,
and AsianAve.com. The Attorney General entered
into formal agreements with myYearbook.com
and Community Connect on the use of the
Report Abuse! icon. Community Connect says
it is the nation’s largest niche social
networking company with more than 19 million
members, and myYearbook.com says it reaches
4.6 million visitors each month.
“We
believe it is vital to give users every
opportunity to identify and swiftly report
inappropriate content,’’ said
Catherine Cook, myYearbook.com co-founder.
“We will place the Report Abuse! icon
at the top of every page making it easy
for our users to report inappropriate behavior.’’
Bernadette Sweeney, director of member services
at Community Connect added in a statement,
“We hope this standardized method
for reporting abuse will help increase member
safety and awareness. Our members are our
number one concern and we strongly believe
they will benefit from this initiative.’’
Milgram
today sent letters to other social networking
sites and to attorneys general throughout
the country asking them to partner in promoting
industry-wide adoption of the icon and the
best practices that guide its use. “I
believe we can make the Report Abuse! icon
a universal, easily recognizable symbol
of safety and effective reporting,’’
Milgram wrote to her colleagues.
The best practices guide calls for the icon
to be placed in a prominent location on
each Web page and once clicked, the user
should be taken to a reporting page that
will have mandatory categories for abuse
reporting. Topics range from predator alert
to child pornography to cyber-bullying.
The reporting page must advise the user
that he or she should contact the police
if they believe someone’s safety is
at risk, including suicide attempts. The
icon should also lead users to safety tips,
and should allow a user to block the person
whom the reporting user believes has been
abusive.
The
Report Abuse! icon is one of several initiatives
undertaken by the Attorney General in connection
with Internet Safety, including training
of school teachers and administrators, and
identifying convicted sexual offenders with
profiles on social networking sites. Following
MySpace’s identification of 268 New
Jersey offenders with MySpace profiles,
the Attorney General asked other social
networking sites to run similar checks to
determine whether convicted sexual offenders
are on their websites.
Milgram thanked staff in the Office of the
Attorney General, the Division of Consumer
Affairs, and the State Police for developing
the safety icon and crafting the best practices
that defined how the reporting scheme should
operate: Assistant Attorney General Michael
Shipp, counsel to the Attorney General;
Deputy Attorney General Jason Orlando; Abbe
Gluck, senior advisor to the Attorney General;
Assistant Attorney General Stephan Finkel;
Paul Kraml, chief graphic designer, Office
of the Attorney General; Assistant Attorney
General James Savage; Laurie Goodman, chief
investigator, and Aziza Salikhov, investigator,
Division of Consumer Affairs; Deputy Attorney
General Kenneth Sharpe; Assistant Attorney
General Josh Lichtblau; Deputy Attorney
General David Balaban; State Police Lt.
Keith Halton and Det. Sgt. Mike Tansey.
She also thanked Professor Jonathan Zittrain
of the Oxford Internet Institute and the
Berkman Center for Internet and Society
at Harvard Law School.
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