Visit Facebook’s redesigned Safety Center and find useful resources, articles and videos on safety and privacy for parents, teachers and teenagers.

by Rune H. Rasmussen

Facebook’s new and improved Family Safety Center is intended to provide a resource for parents, educators, teenagers, and members of the law enforcement community, in order to help users protect themselves against online bullies and predators.

Elliot Schrage, Vice-President of Global Communications and Public Policy at Facebook, said in a statement:
"There's no single answer to making the Internet or Facebook safer. That's why we're introducing new tools and advice for parents, educators and teens. We want our approach for improving safety to be as simple, easy and effective as our approach to improving Facebook's user experience. Our Safety Advisory Board has been a tremendous resource in developing this next generation of safety resources and offering us ideas for new initiatives. Going forward, you'll see even more powerful – and simpler – safety innovations coming from Facebook."

The new Safety Center features include:

• Tools & Resources. Learn about account settings, privacy settings, how to report abusive or offensive content, advanced security features and more.
• Parents: Help Your Teens Play it Safe. Useful information and tips for parents.
• Teachers: Teaching digital kids. Information and tips for teachers.
• Teens: Playing it safe. Information and advice on how to present yourself and stay safe on Facebook.
• Facebook and Law Enforcement. What does the law say about disclosing information?
  

Social reporting tool
One of the features of the Family Safety Center is the social reporting tool. This feature helps users resolve issues with posts, profiles or other content.

Facebook states:
“If you are reporting content you don't like, but that doesn't violate the Facebook Terms, we make it easy for you to communicate with the person who posted it. For example, if you are reporting a photo of yourself, you can easily send the person who posted it a message letting them know you don't like it. In most cases, they will take the photo down if you ask. In cases of bullying or harassment, where you don’t feel comfortable reaching out to the person directly, you can use social reporting to get help from a parent, teacher or trusted friend. You can share that piece of content and a message about the situation with someone you trust. You also have the option to block the person who posted the content and report it to Facebook so we can take action, if appropriate.”

A step by step guideline is available here.

Related articles on kidsandmedia.org:

7 things to know about Facebook

Is it ok for kids to be on Facebook?

Facebook is not suitable for children

Facebook Groups

Facebook in reality