NSPCC says Facebook plans to merge messaging services ‘will help groomers’ and make it easier for them to target children
Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg has been criticised over his plans to combine his three messaging Apps as it would make it easier for paedophiles to target lots of youngsters at once
A CHILD protection charity has hit out at Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg over plans to merge messaging services — saying it will help groomers target kids.
The integration idea — involving Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook — is intended to make it easier to chat with pals.
For example, someone using Facebook could send a message to a friend who only uses WhatsApp.
But the NSPCC says this would also make it easier for paedophiles to target more kids.
Its online safety head Andy Burrows said: “Bringing these messaging services together creates a bigger pool of children.
“We know groomers send out messages on scale — much like phishing emails from crooks trying to steal money.
“Merging messaging could make it easier.”
As part of the change, all messages will be “end-to-end encrypted” — protection that means only the sender and recipient can see them.
MESSAGING FEARS
But Mr Burrows added: “Encryption makes it harder for social networks or law enforcement to see if groomers are operating.”
Facebook owns all three separate services and is aiming to merge messaging by late this year or 2020.
The networks will remain stand-alone apps.
Social media consultant Matt Navarra said Facebook’s move is in part to fight back against Apple’s popular iMessage service.
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A Facebook spokesman said: “There is a lot of discussion and debate as we begin the long process of figuring out the details of how this will work.”
The last full-year figures — for 2017-18 — show police recorded more than 3,000 grooming offences, around nine a day.
Where cops noted the method used to communicate with a child, more than half of the cases (53 per cent) took place on Facebook or the apps it owns.
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