MYYEARBOOK.COM CALLS ON ALL SOCIAL NETWORKS TO ADD PROMINENT ABUSE REPORTING LINKS

Contact:

Jeannine Schechter
(310) 482-3461
jeannine@freshpr.net

Fast Growing Social Network Backs New Jersey Attorney General's Initiative to Standardize Prominent "Report Abuse" Safety Icon Across Social Networks

(Trenton, NJ) September 27, 2007 -- myYearbook.com announced today that it is one of the founding participants in the New Jersey Attorney General's effort to standardize abuse reporting across social networks.

"We believe every social network should have prominent Report Abuse links at the top of every page. We believe it is vital to give users every opportunity to identify and swiftly report inappropriate content," notes Catherine Cook, myYearbook's seventeen-year-old cofounder. "We intend to have the most prominent abuse reporting links in the industry. I believe this program raises the bar above what exists on many popular social networking sites and will help encourage reform."

myYearbook and Community Connect, which owns and operates several social networking sites, including BlackPlanet.com, are the first to join the coalition. To use the "Report Abuse" Safety Icon, each Site must agree to place the Icon in a prominent and consistent location on all pages of its website. In addition, each Site must agree to implement standards of service for processing abuse reports, or "Best Practices," within 90 days.

"Strong Abuse Reporting links are the cornerstone of any successful safety operation," notes Mike Amarosa, who was directly responsible for 9-1-1 for the City of New York and works as myYearbook's Safety Advisor. "Prominent abuse reporting links don't make you safe, just like dialing 9-1-1 does not make you safe, but they do make you more likely to report abuse when you see it. With more reports per user, the safety operation can zero in on people who are engaging in abusive behavior."

"Of course, this is not the end of our safety efforts," notes Catherine. "We plan to announce a large safety education campaign called SocialSafety.org to familiarize users with the types of behaviors to report. We look forward to working collaboratively with other social networks to standardize abuse reporting practices."