I know that I use Facebook quite a lot; I keep in contact with people, I spy on photos, I play games. That doesn’t make me an evangelist for the site; I just came to the conclusion a few years ago that Facebook was one of the better options. Mainly because people seemed to speak in sentences, unlike Bebo where people spoke in emoticons.

It appears that FB is keen on making sure that I get reassured that I made the right choice, by resisting big brother when they come a’knockin’.

Facebook has again rejected demands from child abuse investigators to publish a branded “panic button” on its users’ profile pages.

At a meeting in Washington DC yesterday, the social network told Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) it would make changes to send British complaints about inappropriate activity directly to his organisation. At present they are funnelled though CEOP’s US counterpart.

Facebook reaffirmed that it will not install the CEOP button, however.

Well done for taking that stand; someone is going to have to start standing up to the for the children brigades, and if it’s someone I decided I liked beforehand then I’m all in favour.

I like how wikipedia has described the (unfortunately Norn Irish) boss of the CEOP:

Jim Gamble is Chief Executive of CEOP. A senior police officer of 25 years, he was head of the Northern Ireland anti-terrorist intelligence unit in Belfast, then most recently tackled organised crime as the Deputy Director of the National Crime Squad. Gamble became an Internet laughingstock in March 2010 after calling for a “panic button” – for the public to report suspected paedophiles – to be installed on the main profile page of every Facebook user, a policy which would be rife for abuse.

I like the attitude. Now all we need is for the mainstream people to check the wiki to find out about Mr Gamble and how seriously his attitude should be taken.