Facebook gets warning on safety claims

US-based social networking web site Facebook has been warned that it could face a consumer fraud charge for failing to live up to claims that youngsters there are safer from sexual predators than at most sites and that it promptly responds to concerns, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, quoted by an Associated Press report said.

'We expect an immediate correction eliminating the dangers exposed by our investigation,' said the spokesman, Jeffrey Lerner.

The Associated Press report said Cuomo announced last week that he had subpoenaed Facebook after he said the company did not respond to 'many' complaints by investigators who were solicited for sex while posing as 12- to 14-year-olds on the site.

Officials from Cuomo's office met with Facebook after they said Facebook took three days to answer calls and emails from state investigators, the report said.

An official in Cuomo's office said he and others are scheduled to meet with Facebook representatives this week and anticipate changes will follow immediately, the report said.

The Associated Press report further quoted Lerner as saying that Facebook's contention of being safer than most sites was accurate when it started out as a closed site 3 1/2 years ago.

But it's now much larger, and the safeguards and apparently the response times for complaints aren't what they once were, he said.

There was no immediate response to email and phone messages left for a Facebook representative, the report further said.