Facebook mulls adding panic button

Facebook has had "frank talks" with the Home Secretary on the issue

Facebook has agreed in principle to installing a panic button on its social networking site, according to reports.

The company is said to be considering the move following a "frank exchange" today with home secretary Alan Johnson.

The meeting was held following calls for Facebook to install a button on its site that links straight through to Ceop, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

The Ceop clickthrough service is currently already available on MSN Live Messenger and Bebo.

Last week, when raising concerns about those sites that have not adopted its warning system, Ceop chief executive Jim Gamble said, "Some 267 reports were received about activity on Facebook during 2009, of which 43 per cent were cases of suspected grooming. However, 81 per cent of those reports were made by people having to go to other sites to make the report. That cannot be right."