The police receive a report
on Facebook related crime every 40 minutes, according to a news article
published in Mail Online on 4 June 2012. The authorities recorded 12,300 cases in
2011, involving from fraud and death threats to child sex offences, rape and
murder, with the most cases on cyber bullying. A separate news article on Couriermail.com.au reported that Queensland, Australia alone had
5,000 crime cases linked to social networks in 2011, a 50% increase from 2010.
The article went further reporting that Facebook was linked in the police
reports of 19 murders, 12 attempted murders, 728 assaults, 542 sexual offences
and 379 fraud cases amongst others. Another report from WorldNetDaily indicated that Facebook hosts quite a number of child pornography groups and predator profiles. It is shocking to know that one of the sites located on Facebook filled with images, postings and content with pedophilia suggestions has almost 20,000 likes. However, Facebook announced that they scan through every single image uploaded daily to prevent and remove any child pornography content.
One of Facebook’s conditions is that
the account owner has to be 13 years old and above but unfortunately, there is
no way to govern anyone from lying about their age on Facebook or any other
social networks. The responsibility falls on the parents to again “Always know
what your child is doing” and to educate the child on cyber protection such as
not giving out private information and to practise prudence towards sharing photos.
For further reading about crimes on
Facebook, click Facecrooks
and Top Ten Facebook Scams to Avoid.
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