CANBERRA (Reuters) - Cyber attacks on
Facebook pages set up to pay tribute to two murdered Australian children
has prompted calls for the social networking site to be more
accountable for its users.
Social media experts say it is natural that
people who use sites such as Facebook or MySpace as a major form of
communication should turn to these sites with personal tragedies.
These memorial sites often attract
thousands of friends and well-wishers, as in the case of the pages set
up after the deaths this month of Elliott Fletcher, 12, and Trinity
Bates, 8.
Students from Brisbane
College in the state of Queensland flocked to a memorial site set up
after Fletcher was stabbed in a schoolyard fight two weeks ago, but it
was defaced with offensive comments and images including child
pornography and bestiality.
The
same happened to a site set up in memory of Bates who was taken from her
bed in Bundaberg, Queensland, with her body found in a nearby storm
drain on Monday. A teenager accused of her murder was also revealed to
be a Facebook friend of her parents.
Queensland
Premier Anna Bligh has appealed to the owners of U.S.-based Facebook to
find ways to stop a recurrence of these types of "sickening incidents."
"To have these things happen to Facebook
pages set up for the sole purpose of helping these communities pay
tribute to young lives lost in the most horrible ways adds to the grief
already being experienced," Bligh wrote in a letter to Facebook founder
and CEO Mark Zuckerberg which was released to the media.
"I seek your advice about whether Facebook
can do anything to prevent a recurrence of these types of sickening
incidents."
A spokesman for Bligh
said the premier had yet to receive a response from Zuckerberg.
But Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost said
the site had rules to check content and reviewers were quick to respond
to any reports of hate or threats against an individual, pornography, or
violent photos or videos, and would remove the content, and either warn
or disable the accounts of those responsible.
"Facebook is highly self-regulating, and
users can and do report content that they find questionable or
offensive," Frost said in a statement.
She
said in the tragic case of Elliott Fletcher, Facebook responded to
reports of vandalism from others users and the police by removing the
groups and disabling the accounts of the people responsible but that was
about all the action possible.
"It
is simply not possible to 'prevent' a person with a sinister agenda
from undertaking offensive activity anywhere on the Internet where
people can post content. Nor is it really possible in real life," Frost
added.
Detective Superintendent
Peter Crawford of Queensland police said people should think twice
before setting up such social networking groups. As well as memorial
sites, Facebook pages popped up vilifying the man accused of murdering
Bates.
"I would say anybody
thinking about putting these sites up in the future need to realize that
they're going to attract these kinds of people," Crawford told radio
station Fairfax Radio 4BC.
"The
reality is once you open these sites up to open access to anyone on the
Internet, you are going to attract unsavory people and clearly that's
occurred again."
(Editing by Miral
Fahmy)