Facebook renews efforts to fight bullying with Safety Center relaunch
It just got a little safer to be a Facebook user, no matter where you are in the world.
A relaunch of Facebook's Safety Center now brings comprehensive tools to address bullying and promote safe sharing for all Facebook users. The toolkit is available in more than 50 languages, expanding the Safety Center's reach since its initial launch in 2010.
Facebook is also partnering with more than 60 nonprofit organizations to help get the word out to its 1.7 billion users across the globe, hoping to address how the social network can sometimes be conducive to harmful and hurtful behaviors. The relaunched platform provides in-depth resources -- including videos and tips -- to encourage "safe and secure sharing."
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According to Facebook, the redesigned center is meant to help create a platform that embraces self-expression while also ensuring a safe, welcoming community for all users.
"People come to Facebook to share some of their most important moments in life, and we've built the Safety Center to help people control their experience on our platform and feel safe being themselves," Antigone Davis, head of global safety at Facebook, said in an announcement post.
"We've built the Safety Center to help people control their experience on our platform and feel safe being themselves."
The original version of Facebook's Safety Center was launched in 2010, and the Bullying Prevention Hub launched in 2013 in partnership with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Now, the social network has partnered with organizations like the International Bullying Prevention Association and the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative to make the resources more widely known and accessible.
The new Bullying Prevention Hub allows teens to find tools and resources if they've been bullied, have a friend who's been bullied or even if they've been called a bully. Parents and educators can also find specialized sections in the hub to help address bullying and curb harm before it begins.
The Safety Center lets users find the platform's community standards, including in-depth tutorials on tools that help users control who sees their posts, and whose posts they see. There are also extensive resources, including specialized guides for women, survivors of abuse, military families and even Baby Boomers. While resources are available in more than 50 languages, resources for English speakers are the most abundant.
"For Facebook, making the world more open and connected, [and] giving people the power to share some of their most important moments, means keeping people and their information safe," Davis said.
Topics Facebook Social Good Social Media
Katie Dupere was a Social Good reporter at Mashable from May 2015 to July 2017, covering activism, identities and social impact. Prior to her work with Mashable, Katie penned pieces about queerness, body positivity, sex and relationships for Gurl. She also previously contributed LGBTQ news coverage to PinkNews.
