When will we learn? When something is shared on your Timeline with a suspicious-looking link and a vague write-up like “This is amazing” – even if the person who posted it is your most trusted friend – don’t click on it! A few weeks ago, that link would have led you to an endless loop of surveys; today, it’s a virus and incredibly graphic child pornography video.
Like most viruses that infiltrate the Facebook accounts of the unawares, this particular one invites users to “Watch this if you’re curious,” then seizes control of your account and propagates the same malicious link to all people on your friends list – which they will find annoying and very likely upsetting, to be sure. According to Daily Dot, we owe all this thanks to a group of high school kids in Connecticut who found the offending video share-worthy and passed it on to their friends. It escalated to a full-on FBI investigation when at least three cities alerted the agency of its existence.
The New Britain Police Department thought the best way to address a Facebook problem like this one is through Facebook itself. They issued this warning on their page:
Similarly, considering the origin of the virus outbreak, the Consolidated School District of New Britain posted one on their Facebook page as well.
Facebook maintains that it has zero tolerance for child pornography and will go through exhaustive efforts to eradicate such content from the social networking site.
This type of occurrence is bound to happen again, and the more you know, the better. No matter how much you trust the sharer, subject the content to scrutiny. Make sure the post is described well beyond indistinct invitations to click the link. If it’s not, don’t hesitate to verify through a comment. It’s better to be safe than be sorry, or in this case, be un-friended for undesirable Facebook activity.
Take time to read the Facebook community standards and don’t underestimate the value of discussing it with children who have accounts, if that’s the case. The only good news in this situation is that the authorities are trying to identify the man in the video, and the proliferation of it on Facebook means it will be hard for the perpetrator to hide much longer.
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