Could Your Child Be Looking At Facebook Pages Condoning Rape?

Could Your Child Be Looking At Facebook Pages Condoning Rape?
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How would you feel if your 13-year-old discovered a Facebook page called 'you know she's playing hard to get when you're chasing her down an alley'?

Thousands of Facebook users have signed a petition against this page and others like it, horrified by the way they condone rape and violence against women.

This particular page has attracted a lot of attention with over 190,000 likes and an ugly mass of derogatory comments and seeming confessions of rape such as 'I have raped many women... no lie,' and 'It's not rape, it's surprise sex.'

But Facebook refuses to remove the pages, referring to them as legitimate entertainment and likening them to pub jokes.

A statement from the social networking giant on 17 August 2011 said: "It is very important to point out that what one person finds offensive another can find entertaining – just as telling a rude joke won't get you thrown out of your local pub, it won't get you thrown off Facebook."

What one person finds offensive another may find entertaining is a true enough statement but, as Annika Wolff, mother of one said, "If you want no-holds barred humour, an open Facebook page where any child can come across it is no place for it."

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Facebook remove pictures of women breast feeding their babies or posing pregnant and tastefully nude because they break their no nudity rule and are supposedly offensive. How much more offensive are pages where men confess to rape, use hateful language, belittle and incite violence against women?

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Similar pages such as riding your girl softly cause you don't want to wake her up and brick a slut are also flourishing under Facebook's inaction and failure to protect their users from misogynistic material condoning violence against women.

Ironically, all are in breach of Facebook's own terms and conditions: you will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence (section 3, point 7).

"I'm absolutely disgusted by this," said mother of two teens, Clare Bradley. "How can Facebook possibly say that jokes about raping women are OK? Both my teenage children have Facebook accounts and whilst they are quite sensible kids, like all children they are easily led and persuaded. Heaven knows what lasting impressions they would take away with them if they spent time reading the comments on that page."

Rape is when a person violates another in the most despicable and degrading way imaginable. In the UK 34 of sexually abused children don't tell anyone about the abuse at the time, most too ashamed or too afraid of not being believed to come forward.

Open pages depicting rape not just as acceptable, but funny on the world's most influential social site can only serve to normalise rape culture and further shame victims into silence.

"I have been in the situation of living with rape and abuse," said Sharon Jeffreys. "I was ashamed to go to the police or talk about it with anyone. I was humiliated and called names whilst men laughed and made jokes about it. Jokes very similar to those you see on that page."

What do you think, is it a matter of free speech or should Facebook shut these pages down? Are you happy with your child being unsupervised on Facebook with this material easily available to them?

You can join the fight to get Facebook to remove these pages by signing the petition.