A Message From Stop Sick Children Hoaxes.

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On March 13, 2012 a second open letter about the ‘sick baby’ or “baby charity scam issue” was presented to Facebook by the Privacy and Security Guide. Facebook quickly responded to the letter by stating their spam team had keyed in on and been able to stop the viral replication of these types of photo's quickly. At that time they also managed to remove 150 to 200 photos from a list that had been compiled by various pages and users on Facebook. In the weeks that followed my colleagues and I did notice that Facebook seems to be removing viral instances of the photos more quickly but it also became apparent that they seem to be failing in removing old instances of the hoaxes/ scams, stopping photos with low shares and likes from becoming viral over time and stopping people from creating new instances of them. 

As of now the list that contained 317 links to these photos has swollen to near 3 times that size. In the last month we gather nearly 1000 or more links. Some of the photos are removed in time but the bulk are left in place, even after they have been reported by tons of Facebook users and by the parents of the children involved. In many cases certain photos are removed for a few days, but re-appear and continue to share till viral status. My question and statement to Facebook would be: "You can't seriously think you've handled the issue, can you?" Below I have included links to all of the open letters that have been written to Facebook about this issue. Please take the time to read through them. In all of the open letters to Facebook ideas for dealing with the issue have been offered. Though we know Facebook does not have to use these ideas, it would be nice to see them do more about the problem. In the open letter from the Privacy And Security Guide there is a petition still open for signatures. If you believe Facebook still needs to do more about this issue, please take the time to sign it and pass the information along.. 

Thank you 

~Black Knight

Resources:

An Open Letter To Facebook
http://facebookprivacyandsecurity.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/an-open-letter-to-facebook/

Remove The Baby Charity Scam Photos From Facebook - The Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/petitions/babyscam/signatures

A Response From Facebook re: Our Open Letter
http://facebookprivacyandsecurity.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/a-response-from-facebook-re-our-open-letter/

Anti-scam websites beg Facebook to remove sick baby hoaxes
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/anti-scam-websites-beg-facebook-to-remove-sick-baby-hoaxes/8613

Facebook removes sick baby hoaxes, urges users to report more
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-removes-sick-baby-hoaxes-urges-users-to-report-more/8675

An Open Letter to the Media, February 4th - A plea
http://www.thatsnonsense.com/aplea.php

A Special Appeal to Facebook Users - Unauthorized Use of Baby Zoe Chambers Photograph
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/zoe-chambers-story.shtml

Please Join Me In Educating Facebook Users At A New Page I Have Created.

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Via Stop Sick Children Hoaxes

I have create a new page with one purpose in mind: To educate Facebook users about a relatively new form of child exploitation on Facebook. Everyday thousands to tens of thousands of Facebook users are being duped into sharing photos of children either under the misguided presumptions that Facebook or other entities will donate money for sharing or liking of the photos or by being emotionally blackmailed into sharing and liking photos of the children. These photos, which depict children who are ill, disabled or appear to suffer some other heartbreaking issue, are often stolen from other websites or from the parents directly. They are then uploaded to Facebook and used by malicious fan page admins, con-men and those seeking nothing more than attention, or increased likes, shares and traffic to their pages. Sometimes con-men take the exploitation even further by turning sharing and liking into asking participants to send money to him or her for the child.

One would think that this type of child exploitation would be quickly removed from Facebook. However, that is not the case. Though Facebook has taken action to cut down on particularly viral instances of this issue, they seem to be failing in removing old instances of the hoaxes, stopping photos with low shares and likes from becoming viral over time and stopping people from creating new instances of them. Over a one month period I and 2 small groups of Facebook's users collected over 900 links to these types of Photos, and in those 900 links we found that there were at times up to 6 million likes amongst them, with some of the photos having been on the site since September 2011. Please note: The data was collected after 2 open letters were written to Facebook and Facebook stated they were working on the issue. Also our data only reflects what we can find and see in our little sections of the massive 800 million user site and was not collected during the issues most viral time. By my rough estimation, I believe nearly 30 to 50 million shares/ likes of these types of photos happen before we started collecting our data. New photos are uploaded every day....

At this point I believe since Facebook seems to be unable to better control the issue or provide users with a better way to report this type of exploitation we the users need to educate ourselves, friends and Family on recognizing it and avoid participating in it. We need to do this not just for ourselves but also for the children and the Families of these children. Many families are heartbroken to see their child used in this way and are finding it extremely hard to do anything about it.

Please use my new page to educate yourselves, your family and your friends. I'm am not encouraging you to like or share anything from the page, nor am I asking you to tell your friends to "like" or "share" anything from the page. Instead, read the information on it, read the alerts we send out from it and if you find the information helpful tell the people you care for, about it. Tell them to educate themselves, to stop supporting child exploitation and to stop allowing themselves to be emotionally blackmailed. Their good hearts are better used to actually help a child, not help a con-man.

Stop Sick Children Hoaxes
https://www.facebook.com/StopSickChildrenHoaxes

~Black Knight
Co-Admin - The BULLDOG Estate
Co-Admin - Privacy and Security Guide
Owner - Stop Sick Children Hoaxes
Owner - Scam Sniper