UK inquiry into social networks

Social networking is big news in Britain this week. Some 61% of UK 13-to-17-year-olds have pages on social-networking sites, and the British government-backed Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (CEOP) has launched an inquiry into activity on the social networks, citing parents' and educators' concerns, The Guardian reports. According to The Guardian, 1 in 12 of the UK's 8 million children with Net access have met offline with someone they originally encountered online. That statistic includes online venues other than the social networks, but CEOP's reportedly zooming in on social-networking because of its sudden extreme popularity with teens. "A minority of children, some as young as 13, have begun showing pictures of themselves in sexual poses, semi-naked or wearing lingerie," The Guardian reports. "One headteacher has called in police after discovering more than 700 of her students had signed up with bebo, and that some were displaying images she considered to be indecent. Linda Wybar, headteacher of Tunbridge Wells girls' grammar, also banned the site from her school and wrote to every parent about her concerns." Besides its inquiry, CEOP will also hold safe-social-networking workshops for parents, teens, and educators, the BBC reports. Across the pond, the FTC has just testified on Capitol Hill about its concerns, basically calling for greater self-regulation on the social networks' part, ConsumerAffairs.com reports.