At the beginning of the week we reported on Coca Cola making a pretty big mistake – posting pornographic material on young Facebook users’ profiles for a Dr Pepper advertising campaign.

Coca Cola is now reported to be considering cutting ties with the agency that created the campaign, which led to parents accusing them of targeting children by referencing a notorious pornographic film.

The soft-drinks giant has told the agency that it must stop all advertising work on Coca-Cola brands until a decision is reached on whether to terminate the relationship.

“We have stopped all our ongoing work with [digital agency] Lean Mean Fighting Machine and are currently reviewing our relationship with the agency,” said a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola GB.

The company was forced to pull the Facebook campaign for its Dr Pepper brand, in which users allowed their Facebook status box to be taken over by the company. Users could choose from three levels of “embarrassingness”, and the contract with Facebook stipulated that all content had to be moderated by Coke before going live.

However, the promotion backfired when a Mumsnet user saw her 14-year-old daughter’s Facebook page – or rather the Dr Pepper campaign she had joined – had been updated with a message that made direct reference to a hardcore pornographic film. Coca-Cola apologised and announced an investigation into its promotion procedures.

It said the offending line had been approved by them, without them realising its true meaning.

Dr Pepper is no stranger to flirting with social media controversy in its marketing activity, which uses the strapline “What’s the worst that can happen?”. For April Fool’s Day the brand launched a push on Chatroulette featuring a cheerleader.

Access the original article online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/21/facebook-dr-pepper-coca-cola

A web hosting company has said it shut down a blogging platform that was home to over 70,000 bloggers because a “link to terrorist material” and an al-Qaeda “hit list” was posted to the site. BurstNet said Blogetery.com also posted “bomb-making instructions”.

The company said it acted after receiving “a notice of a critical nature from law enforcement officials”. But the move has angered bloggers who use the platform and say they were given no notice of the shutdown.

In response Blogetery.com said its server had been “terminated without any notification or explanation.” The site added that it is trying to resolve the situation.

“The posted material, in addition to potentially inciting dangerous activities, specifically violated the BurstNet acceptable use policy” said the web host firm.

BurstNet also claimed that the site had a history of previous abuse. The news blog Cnet.com reported that officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told BurstNet on 9 July that al-Qaeda materials had been found on Blogetery’s servers.

It also claimed that material allegedly found on the server included “the names of American citizens targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda” as well as messages from Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the terrorist organisation.

BurstNet’s chief technology officer, Joe Marr, said that the FBI sent a “Voluntary Emergency Disclosure of Information” request to the firm.

Sources have confirmed to the BBC that this was the case but FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the bureau does not comment on active investigations. However he did say that the FBI had not asked for any websites to be shut down.

The FBI does not have the power to remove content from websites or to take them down. That can only be done with the authority of a judge.

Calls to BurstNet were not returned.

Access the original article online at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10692501

The Telegraph reports that Coca-Cola has been forced to pull an internet campaign after parents accused the company of using hardcore pornographic references to target children on Facebook.

A Facebook promotion for Dr Pepper, part of the Coca-Cola drinks range, posted a reference to a notorious pornographic film on the “wall” of an underage girl. As part of the promotion, users allowed the company to hijack their Facebook status box, posting apparently embarrassing messages under their names.

More than 160,000 people signed up for the hoax statuses. But the marketing drive backfired when a parent complained that her 14-year-old daughter’s hijacked status claimed that she had watched a hardcore pornographic film.

The status referred to the film by name, and the mother said she was particularly distressed after finding that her daughter had subsequently searched for it on the internet.

Mrs Rickman wrote on the parents’ networking site Mumsnet: “I am absolutely fizzing with rage and disgust, and want a full apology and explanation.”

She said Coca-Cola had “offensively” offered to compensate her with a night in a hotel and West End theatre tickets, adding: “Fat lot of use to me, we live in Glasgow”.

Other Mumsnet users reacted furiously to news of the “disgusting” promotion, and praised Mrs Rickman for bringing it to light.

Coca-Cola has since apologised and announced an investigation into its promotion procedures. Executives said they had approved the offending message without realising its true meaning.

A spokesman said: “It has been brought to our attention that the Dr Pepper promotion on Facebook posted an offensive status update. We apologise for any offence caused. As soon as we became aware of this, we took immediate action and removed the status update from the application. We have also taken the decision to end the promotion. We will take all steps necessary to ensure this does not happen again”.

Access the original article online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7897706/Coca-Cola-accused-of-using-porn-to-target-children-on-Facebook.html

The Daily Mail reports that a transsexual who downloaded images of child pornography escaped jail because a judge said prison would be too tough a place for her.

Laura Voyce, 20, who was born a man, faced being locked up for nine months in a male prison after being convicted of 14 counts of downloading indecent images of children.

But despite this Judge Lesley Newton allowed Voyce, who is in the middle of a sex change which means she is biologically a man but legally a woman, to walk free with a nine-month jail term suspended for a year. She must also complete 100 hours of unpaid work. The judge said prison would be an ‘appalling experience’ for the sex offender.

Last night children’s charities reacted with anger to the leniency of Voyce’s sentence. Michelle Elliott, founder of Kidscape, said: ‘This ruling is absolutely absurd. It sends out entirely the wrong message that this transsexual’s feelings are more important than the emotions experienced by the children in these images who have gone through this terrible abuse. She should have gone to jail. There should be no special circumstances where child abuse in concerned.’

Judge Newton said she was satisfied Voyce had downloaded the images for her own ‘perverted-sexual gratification’, but refused to jail her.

The judge said: ‘I take these offences very seriously; these are real children who are being abused so that people like you can look at them. Frankly, you deserve to go to prison, but I can’t bring myself to send you to prison, entirely because I think prison would be an appalling experience for you. I do not see how you could be kept safe in a prison environment with the best will in the world on the part of those who run such establishments.’

Voyce was told she must sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and warned she would be immediately jailed if she fell foul of the law again.

Access the original article online at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1294620/Transsexual-pervert-downloaded-child-porn-spared-jail.html

After all the fuss about Chatroulette, the unrestricted video chat site, traffic numbers have apparently been dropping. US unique visitors to the site fell from 1.56 million in April to 1.33 million in May, according to ComScore.

This is the first time the site has seen its traffic decline and in order to combat the fall, its released some new features.

One of these new features is Localroulette, which will allow you to chat with people in the same country. Unfortunately this is about the only channel that isn’t related to sex or some kind of perversion, so the site hasn’t really done anything to revoke its X-rated nature.

Back in February, a documentary maker did some research into the Chatroulette user base. He categorised the users as 71% boys, 15% girls and 14% perverts. Clearly not a site suitable for children, despite the fact there are no restrictions on anyone that signs up for it.

One of the ChatRoulette features that seems to appeal to people is honesty, as  under the harsh scrutiny of a webcam there is nowhere to hide: what you see is what you get. However, the BBC has reported that researchers have found that if they pick the right video (no prizes for guessing that it was of an attractive woman) they can fool ChatRouletters into thinking they are talking to a real person…

“In a test, they were able to trick users into thinking they were actually chatting with a prerecorded video of a cute woman. They did this by making the video choppy, as if it came from a low-bandwidth network and using text-based chat, instead of audio chat. Only one of the 15 users who chatted with the video asked the researchers to prove that it was of a real, live person. Otherwise, the researchers were regularly able to get people to chat for an hour using this technique.”

So even if you appear to be able to see the person you are talking to, it might not be who you think…

Parents are advised to add www.chatroulette.com to the list of blocked sites in their parental control software and explain to their children the dangers it can pose.

The Guardian reports on a Facebook advert that promoted the online game Mafia Wars, which featured a photo of a sinister, hooded man holding a large knife, has been banned by the advertising watchdog.

The ad was by Zynga, the company behind hugely popular games such as Farmville, which account for as much as 20% of Facebook’s revenue, and ran with the line “From street thug to capo. Earn your street cred and be respected.”

In its ruling today, the Advertising Standards Authority said it was banning the Mafia Wars ad for implying that carrying a weapon was a way to earn respect and achieve success.

Zynga blamed Facebook, claiming that the social networking website approved the ad. The company also said that it was targeted at an adult audience “deemed capable of understanding its context”.

The advertiser also said that the man holding the knife in the ad “reflected the content and theme of the game, as did the text, but did not show any actual violence”.

Facebook said that it removed the ad because it breached internal advertising guidelines that prohibited images of weapons.

The ASA said that the ad was “aggressive and threatening” and implied that “carrying or using a knife was a way to earn respect from a peer group and a means to achieve success in life”.

“We concluded that the ad glamorised and condoned violence and was irresponsible,” said the watchdog, which banned the ad for breaking the advertising code.

Access the original article online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/14/asa-mafia-wars-facebook

• One in seven kids is solicited for sex online
• One in 33 kids receives aggressive online solicitations to meet in person
• One in three kids receives unsolicited sexual content online
• 34% of kids online indicate they communicate with people they don’t know

In response, the centre has teamed up with NSTeens.org, an e-safety website, to promote online safety issues via a video aimed at 8-12 year olds.

The new video “Mike-tosis,” demonstrates how quickly information spreads through the Internet, on mobile phones, and other technology that is widely used today. In addition, a new online game “Cyberbully Zombies Attack,” has been released. It allows players to use Internet safety tips, trusted adults, and technology as tools to stop cyberbullying zombies from reaching their school.

“Today children have more access to the Internet that ever before in history. The majority of all households today have at least one computer and we know that most teens access the Internet from multiple locations,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the NCMEC. “Kids already know that the Internet is a wonderful resource. They also need to understand the potential risks and the simple things that they can do that will help them stay safe. That is why NSTeens was created. It is designed for tweens but also can serve as an educational resource for parents and teachers.”

A horrific video was recently found on Facebook involving a young child being sexually abused. Those who had come across the video contacted their local American news channel, who then bought it to the attention of the state police and child welfare officials.

It is not clear where the disturbing video was filmed, although the clip does have an IP address linking it to Jamaica.

A spokesman for Facebook said that as soon as the police reported the video, the company worked to stop further sharing of the clip and removed it from Facebook’s servers.

People are warned that if they ever see something of a similar nature on the internet, then they should report it to local police and make the hosting site aware of the content.

The BBC reports on news that paedophiles are increasingly accessing indecent pictures of children from webcams. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) says it has seen a “notable increase” in still and moving images captured on webcams.

Ceop warns some of these images may be self-taken, as a result of online grooming, and others are passed on via webcam streaming chat sites. The centre is also cracking down on paedophiles travelling abroad.

In its annual review, Ceop said the volume of indecent images remained challenging and the rise in pictures captured via webcams was notable.

“These can be self-taken as a result of online grooming, for example, inciting a child to commit a sexual act and then using video capture software to record the video streams for later viewing and trading and/or use as blackmail to ensure further compliance by the child,” the report said. “Similarly, there is also a marked trend of the use of webcam streaming chat sites, enabling offenders to interact either through instant messages and/or webcam to share previously captured footage or live-time images of abuse of children in their care.”

The Ceop report said its overseas tracker team – which works to disrupt paedophiles travelling abroad to abuse children – had become “more proactive than ever before”.

It said new ways of tracking offenders and better tactical intelligence gathering had seen 58 arrests, deportations or warrants issued. Ceop’s picture of travelling offenders was improving “at pace”, it said.

The organisation said it had safeguarded 278 children from abuse between February 2009 and March 2010. And Ceop said it had safeguarded a total of 624 children since its launch in 2006, delivering “significant results” in the fight against child sexual abuse.

The annual review also noted that nearly 5.7 million children had taken part in its “Thinkuknow” online safety programme.

Jim Gamble, chief executive of Ceop, said: “Ceop brings together cross-sector expertise and then delivers bespoke front line services to a whole network of practitioners. That is real economy of scale and our results year on year show the very lasting and significant impact we are making.”

The Minister for Crime Prevention, James Brokenshire, said: “The government is committed to protecting children and Ceop plays a vital role which means more children are safeguarded, more offenders are apprehended and more professionals are trained.”

Access the original article online at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10461616.stm