Facebook involved in 32% of cyber-bullying cases in UK

Facebook was used in 32.5 per cent of cyber-bullying cases, including revenge porn and harassment, in Britain last year, prompting fears that the social media platform may be providing a safe haven for those who harass others, the media reported.

There was also evidence of sexual abuse, disclosure of revenge porn aimed at blackmailing or defrauding and vicious online bullying campaigns.

"Facebook is still not doing enough to protect its users from cyber-bullying and needs to step up its game," The Sun quoted Clare Ambrosino from Parliament Street, a Britain-based innovative young think-tank, as saying on Sunday.

"Facebook is the favoured media for the very young and it is fundamental that they are kept safe," Ambrosino added.

According to a research by Parliament Street, 19,320 incidents of cyber-bullying, including revenge porn and harassment, were reported to the police in Britain last year.

Out of these, the police stepped into nearly 6,300 cyber-bullying incidents.

While Facebook was involved in 32.5 per cent of these cases in 2016, Twitter accounted for just 0.9 per cent of cases -- despite having a market share of five per cent of social media use in Britain.

"We take people's safety very seriously on Facebook. However, if people feel that they could be in genuine harm we would urge them to contact the police as well," a Facebook spokesman was quoted as saying.

"Sadly there will always be malicious people who harass people both online and offline"

"We provide reporting links on every page of our site so that people can report content to us enabling our teams to review and take quick action," the spokesman said.

--IANS

rt/ksk/dg