NSPCC says video which has gone viral depicts child abuse, but Facebook says allowing it to be shared could lead to the child being rescued
Simon Milner, director of policy at Facebook UK, said the video posed a difficult issue for the network. Photograph: Anatolii Babii / Alamy/Alamy
Facebook has defended its decision to allow its users to share disturbing video of a screaming baby being roughly dunked in a bucket of water, despite calls from campaigners for government action to prevent the dissemination of such images.
Children’s welfare charity the NSPCC said the video, which has gone viral on Facebook, depicted child abuse.
Peter Wanless, the NSPCC chief executive, has written to Lady Shields, the minister responsible for internet safety, to intervene to help safeguard children on social networks.
He said: “The NSPCC believes we have now reached the long overdue point where it is time for social networking sites to be held to account for the content on their sites and pay more attention to their safeguarding duties to protect children and young people, whether they are viewing the content or appearing in it.”
Simon Milner, director of policy at Facebook UK, said the video posed a difficult issue for the network.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday he said it would take down the video where users were seen to be praising or making fun of the content.
But he added it was appropriate for users to share the video to highlight the abuse and protect the child concerned.
“Our response has been it does not breach our terms, but it is a disturbing and distressing video ... and therefore it’s right that we put up a warning ... and only if it is shared in the context of condemning it,” he said.
He said such sharing online could help prevent abuse. “We have seen from experience that when things like that are shared on Facebook it can and does lead to the rescue of the child. We hope very much that this will happen in this case,” he said.
Milner added: “We absolutely take extremely seriously the safety of everybody on Facebook and particularly the most vulnerable.”
Claire Lilley, the NSPCC’s lead on child safety online said the video highlighted a broader problem.
“This is not an isolated incident. This is one example of content which many people find disturbing and distress and yet is freely available to see,” she told Today.
The video has been described by some as baby yoga. Lilley dismissed this.
“What is one person’s baby yoga in one cultural context, is child abuse in another context,” she said. “The baby is flung about in a very violent way which could cause serious damage to its brain and its limbs. We just don’t think its appropriate for that to be so easily viewable.”
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