Facebook Agrees to Panic Button

Conceding to pressure from child protection advocates, Facebook has agreed to put a "panic button" on every page of its site in the UK. The button, aimed at children and teenagers, will send an alert to both Facebook and a government child protection agency. The agency had called for the button in the wake of the rape and murder of British teen Ashleigh Hall by a 33-year-old-sex offender posing as a teenage boy who she met on the site

Facebook initially resisted the button, saying its own controls were sufficient. It agreed to the measure after months of negotiation and after 44 police chiefs in the UK signed a letter backing the call for a panic button on every Facebook page. Rival sites MySpace and Bebo also have the button. "Both sides are happy of where we have got to," a Facebook rep told the BBC.
(More Facebook stories.)