Bebo delaying on reports of abuse

Children & Young People Now 28-May-08

Social networking site Bebo is taking too long to warn the authorities about possible incidents of child exploitation.

In the past year, Bebo has filed 290 reports of suspect incidents to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop). Unlike many social networking sites, Bebo allows children and young people to click a button to report abuse to the website's administrators.

But a spokeswoman for Ceop said the agency is concerned about delays in Bebo handing the information over to them. According to Ceop, the time delay between reports reaching Bebo and being sent to Ceop ranged from seven hours to three days and 14 hours. The average delay was one day and 23 hours.

The Ceop spokeswoman said: "We receive around four reports a day that need an urgent response from the authorities because a child is in immediate danger."

Bebo was unavailable for comment as CYP Now went to press.