http://blog.backpage.com/
BACKPAGE STEPS UP SAFETY EFFORTS, CALLS FOR NATIONAL TASK FORCE
October 18th, 2010
Over the last several weeks, Backpage.com has been working closely with our Internet safety expert, Hemanshu Nigam, and his company SSP Blue, to identify areas where we can put up stronger defenses against those intent on placing illegal ads on our site. We made a lot of progress and will continue to march forward with our commitment to the safety and security of our community – both adult and minors alike.
Today we announced the suspension of some limited areas of our Personals and Adult sections while we build up our safety defenses. We also announced some significant steps we are taking to ensure that the content and images in the ads placed on our site is legal and in line with our terms of use. Finally, we also believe that we are at a stage in our industry’s growth where we can all benefit greatly from a multi-stakeholder national task force to identify key best practices to prevent illegal ads and those intent on victimizing the vulnerable. We call upon our friends in the industry, like YellowPages.com, Twitter, Yelp, YouTube, and Eros.com, and others we have listed below, to join us at the table in working with state Attorneys General, law enforcement, and child advocacy groups to take on the challenges of this new frontier. Only then can we all succeed in isolating the abusers.
We treat the development of a holistic safety and security program as a journey not a destination. We will remain committed to working diligently in providing a place to advertise that puts user safety and security first.
Here are just some of the things we are doing:
- The review of all ads and images in the personals and adult sections of the site.
- The implementation of key word searches to quickly identify banned advertisements and inappropriate discussions.
- The significant increase in staff to quickly identify illegal ads.
- The implementation of roadblocks to prevent minors from accessing mature content.
- The implementation of dedicated tools on the site to educate users regarding online safety and security.
- The empowerment of users to report abuse and an expeditious process to handle user complaints.
