The social networking giant formed the Facebook Safety Advisory Board along with Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). The organizations will provide consultative service to Facebook as it refines its privacy and safety offerings for users, it said.
The board's first action will be to revise the safety information that it offers through its online help center, Facebook said, to provide more comprehensive safety information for children, parents, and teachers.
Facebook faces an ongoing fight against online predators using its site. Earlier this year, the company tussled with Sentinel, a company selling software to help social networking sites identify registered sex offenders among their users, via popular technology news site Techcrunch.
Facebook has taken several steps to help protect its younger users from online predators in the past couple of years. It is participating with MTV in an educational campaign called 'A Thin Line', designed to protect young users from harm. It also signed a deal with the attorneys general of 49 states in May 2008, promising to enhance its protection of minors using its service online, implementing measures such as automatically warning minors when they are giving out too much personal information about themselves. And it participates in the Internet Technical Safety Task Force, a collection of online businesses and other organizations that joined together to help combat online predators.