Fielder, a Windsor UK woman, was born missing her left hand. She’s spent her career helping “limb deficient” people through a charity called Reach. And according to the BBC, her profile picture on Facebook was copied and posted on a porn site for people with fetishes for amputees.

Although the image of Fielder was one of her fully clothed, the porn site used her image to increase clicks. The image yielded “obscene comments by men” who were attracted to her because of her handicap.

People who have a sexual interest in amputees actually have an official term – they are called Acrotomophiles, from the Greek words for extremity and to cut. They often times refer to themselves as “devotees.”

Fielder said that after her pic was posted on the website, she received a flurry of men who contacted her via Facebook. She told the BBC that most of these men were from the U.S. and many “pretended to have missing limbs” and tried to friend her on the social networking site.

Although she just talked to the BBC, the incident apparently happened a while ago. Last year, on her blog “Shared Experiences” which is linked to on her Facebook profile, she details what happened in more detail:

However, as good as the internet and facebook is at putting me in touch with parents it has also exposed me to a side of life I didn’t even know existed and that is the ‘secret world of a devotee’. I’ve found to my horror that there are men (and it’s mostly men) who are sexually attracted to women with missing limbs and will do anything to start up relationships with women with stumps.

Their fixation is so great that some resort to adopting fake profiles on facebook i.e. they pretend that they are also a woman with a limb deficiency. I was taken in by a few such people and discovered some of my photos had been uplifted and posted on dubious sites.

When I found out I wanted to close down my facebook account and take a hammer to my computer. It took me a good few weeks to accept that such people exist and understand more about how they choose to behave. I’ve now made my peace with the simple fact that whilst ‘Mr Main Stream’ might be a ‘tits or legs’ man that there is a minority of men who feel their pulses race at the site of a shapely stump. I’ll leave the topic of devotees at this point as I’m certainly not seeking to normalise their behaviours or give them a platform. I don’t like being pestered by devotees, but they’re out there and there is little that can be done about it.

Apparently this hasn’t only happened to Fielder. In the BBC interview she says that in her experience, most female amputees have experienced their photographs being used by “devotee” websites.

It’s just a cold hard fact of the internet that with greater visibility comes the risk of over-exposure. There’s no telling where some of your online photos end up – could be anywhere. Facebook has the feature to disallow the downloading of photo files, accessible through the privacy options. But anyone with half a brain knows that a screencap and the simplest editing software can bypass that measure with almost no effort whatsoever.

[Image Courtesy of Fielder's Blog]

Yahoo Safely allows users in  26 countries and 14 languages to access information and advices on making better choices online. The site aims to to inform parents, educators, and young people in their own languages about important topics, such as managing digital reputations, avoiding cyber-bullying, and learning how to minimize risks on mobile devices.

“Online safety has long been a priority for Yahoo, and we are proud to celebrate Safer Internet Day with the launch of Yahoo Safely in 26 countries,” said Catherine Teitelbaum, Yahoo’s director of child safety and product policy.

“With Yahoo Safely, we are giving kids, teens, and parents around the world the tools they need to make smart digital decisions and to deal with the important online issues they face every day.”

Yahoo Safely offers information to users in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada (English and French), Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, United Kingdom, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

In addition, Yahoo! Maktoob recently launched Yahoo! Safety Oasis which educates Arabic-speaking children about how to surf the Net and protect their personal privacy.

The survey also found that 76% of parents with kids on Facebook have "friended" their teenagers, while 29% of these teens would un-friend their parents if they were given the option. Heartwarming isn’t it? These kids are twice as likely to un-friend their mothers as opposed to their fathers.

Along with the survey, AOL has released a new product called Safe Social, which provides parents with a "360 degree view of their child’s social networking life". This includes a report card of overall social networking activity and identification of potential red flags.

Safe Social requires consent from the child to allow parents access to their kids’ friends list and what they’re posting on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Parents can even get alerts about potential predator relationships and indications of "at-risk behaviors" like references to alcohol, bullying or suicide.

"Predators, whether bullies or sexual offenders, often masquerade as friends," says John Ryan, AOL’s head of Online Safety and Security. "The key is to unmask them. Safe Social takes an across-the-board look at your kid’s friends and checks them against more than 50 databases and other factors, such as distance, to help you find out if they are, who they say they are."

Safe Social also addresses reputation management issues for teens, giving parents the ability to review postings, uploaded photos in which their kids are tagged, etc.
 

"Staying safe online is not a one-time conversation with children, it’s an ongoing process that parents and youth need to be aware of every time they log on," adds Karlsten.

The survey (conducted among 2,003 Internet users in the U.S., ages 18–64) found that parents are taking action, but cyber-bullying education is needed. Stats include:

- 78% of parents are concerned about their children’s online safety.

- 70% of parents talk to their children about online safety at least 2-3 times a year; 45% talk to their children at least once a month.

- 74% of parents are connected to their children’s profiles on social networking sites.

- 71% of parents have taken at least one action to manage their children’s use of the Internet or cell phones such as checking to see where children are searching online, setting time limits for children’s use of computers or cell phones, setting parental controls on video sites, and using filters to limit where children go on the Web.

- 81% of parents know what cyberbullying is.

- 25% who are aware of cyberbullying have either been victims or know someone else affected by cyberbullying.

- 37% of parents feel that they know what to do about cyberbullying.

- 73% want their child’s school to play an active role in teaching kids about online safety and citizenship.

- 71% of dads (compared to 63% of moms) say they are taking at least one action to help manage their children’s online behavior including having conversations about respecting the privacy of others and checking their children’s privacy settings. More dads than moms have had a conversation with their children about their digital reputations and how to promote a positive online reputation.

- 53% of dads said they plug their children’s names into a search engine at least 2–3 times per year (compared to 38% of moms) – 33% of dads said they do this search at least once a month.

- 47% of dads have conversations about online safety at least once a month, compared to 42% of moms.

- According to the survey, more dads than moms use filters to limit where their kids go online, and more dads monitor the time children send text messages and how many text messages they send.

"Yahoo! applauds the parents who are taking an active role in keeping their kids safer online, and we want to give them valuable advice and resources so they can earn an ‘A’ for their efforts," said Catherine Teitelbaum, director of child safety, Yahoo! Inc. "We encourage parents to use Yahoo! Safely — an online resource catered to kids, parents, and educators which provides relevant, up-to-date strategies and tools to help foster safer online experiences."

Yahoo runs a site called Yahoo Safely, which features resources and links for teens and parents, as well as content from safety experts including Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, and WiredSafety. The site has guides for safer practices for using Yahoo products like Mail, Messenger, Groups, etc. Yahoo also has safety info in the parents’ section of Yahoo Kids and the parenting section of Yahoo Shine.

The company points out that it also works with online safety nonprofits like  Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, FOSI, Internet Keep Safe Coalition, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and WiredSafety, as well as related efforts from other groups such as Ad Council, CARU/BBB, and NCSA. Karlsten also notes that Yahoo collaborates with law enforcement to find new ways to protect children online.

The goal of the partnership is to provide information, support and news to encourage citizenship online, cut down on cyberbullying and improve Internet safety and security.

The National PTA said it will use its website to reach out to the 24,000 local PTAs across the country with a goal of reaching every American public school. Facebook will raise awareness of resources for parents, teachers and children using its service on other parts of the site, including the safety center.

"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well being of the people, especially the many teenagers, who use Facebook," says Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook.

"Only through the constant and concerted effort of parents, teachers, law enforcement and industry can we keep kids safe and help them develop into tomorrow’s leaders. We are proud to be working with National PTA toward that goal."

Facebook and the PTA plan to consult with many child safety, education and technology experts to collect, build and maintain a set of multi-media education resources for the initiative.  The program will include input from Facebook’s global Safety Advisory Board as well.
 

The new Safety Center now has four times the number of pages focused on safety topics than was previously available.

Facebook worked directly with its Safety Advisory Board on the redesign. The board provided advice on topics to address within the Center, including protections against cyberbullying; how to report a policy violation; and information for educators on using the service.

The Safety Center includes content for parents developed by Common Sense Media, a member of Facebook’s Safety Advisory Board, on topics such as "How do I teach my teen to use the Internet wisely?" and "Can I ‘friend my teen on Facebook?"

"There’s no single answer to making the Internet or Facebook safer," said Elliot Schrage, Vice-President of Global Communications and Public Policy at Facebook. "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."

Facebook said it used the European Union’s Safer Social Networking Principles, a set of best practices adopted by social networking sites, to shape the new design.

The Facebook Safety Advisory Board consists of five Internet safety organizations. The organizations include Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International, which aims to fight cyberbullying,
 

"Net Cetera" explains to parents and their children how to deal with issues such as social networking, cyberbullying, using mobile phones safely, and protecting the family computer from viruses.

The booklet is written in plain language and does not require readers to be technologically savvy. It is the most recent addition to the OnGuardOnline.gov consumer education campaign, which helps people guard against Internet fraud, secure their computers, and protect their privacy.

"With more than a million copies distributed in just over four months, Net Cetera is a runaway hit," said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

"It’s proof that people want to have continuing conversations with their kids about communicating online."

The FTC created "Net Cetera" in response to a Congressional mandate in the Broadband Data Improvement Act, and has promoted it through its OnGuardOnline.gov campaign. The campaign includes 13 other federal agencies as partners and centers on a Web site of the same name.
 

The new initiative called "Click Clever Click Safe" was created by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS).

"The internet provides our children with a world of entertainment, opportunity and knowledge – a world literally at their fingertips," said Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"But we must ensure that the virtual world is as safe for them as this one."

The government says that 99 percent of 8-17 year olds have access to the Internet. New research found that 18 percent of young people had come across "harmful or inappropriate content online," and 33 percent of children said their parents where unaware of what they do on the Internet.

Under the new initiative Internet companies, charities and the government will be independently reviewed against UKCCIS standards to keep children safe online. Young people and parents will be targeted by a new Digital Code "Zip it, Block it, Flag it," that will be adopted by retailers, social networking sites, schools and charities and displayed where appropriate.

Parents will be able to access a website for Internet safety advice hosted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection center.

"Today we are launching our online version of the ‘green cross code’. We hope that ‘zip it, block it, flag it’ will become as familiar to this generation as ‘stop, look, listen’ did to the last," said Prime Minister Brown.
 

Related Articles:

> Facebook Forms Board For Online Safety

>Security A Concern For Online Holiday Shoppers

>Spam Is Getting More Malicious

The five organizations on the board are Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute.

Facebook said it plans to regularly meet with board members to review the existing safety resources it provides its users, develop new material, and seek advice on general safety best practices on an ongoing basis.

The first job of the board will be to oversee an overhaul of the safety content located in Facebook’s Help Center. The goal of the overhaul is to create a comprehensive resource with specific educational content for parents, teachers and teens.

"We believe that the only way to keep kids safe online is for everyone who wants to protect them to work together," said Elliot Schrage, Vice-President of Global Communications and Public Policy at Facebook.

"The formation of a board to advise specifically on safety issues is a positive, innovative and collaborative step towards creating a more robust safety environment, and we are thrilled that such a well-respected, trusted group of organizations has joined us in this endeavor."

Facebook said it created the Safety Advisory Board as way to gather more feedback and to formalize the relationships it currently has with these organizations.  Facebook said that it may add additional members over time as it looks to broaden international representation on the board.
 

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Deepens Integration With Facebook

>Facebook Cracks 350 Million Users, Adjusts Privacy Settings

>Nearly Half Of Consumers Would Recommend A Product On Facebook

The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) will bring together more than 100 organizations from both the public and private sector to work with the government and make recommendations about how to keep children safe online.

The council will report directly to the Prime Minister with the goal to help improve the regulation and education around Internet use, addressing problems around online bullying, safer search features, and violent video games.

The coalition includes Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Bebo and will ensure that parents and young people have a voice in the development of a Child Internet Safety Strategy.

Specifically the strategy will:

• establish a comprehensive public information and awareness and child internet safety campaign across Government and industry including a ‘one-stop shop’ on child internet safety; 
• provide specific measures to support vulnerable children and young people, such as taking down illegal internet sites that promote harmful behaviour;
•  promote responsible advertising to children online; and
•  establish voluntary codes of practice for user-generated content sites, making such sites commit to take down inappropriate content within a given time.

"We are determined to do all we can to ensure that the internet environment is safe for children to use. Earlier this year, the Home Office published the first ever social networking guidance developed with industry, charities and law enforcement," said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.