Here is my take on how Facebook handles Violating the Terms of Use policy. So far, it looks very lame.

I noticed an abusive comment on my daughter’s Facebook Wall. I knew the boy who left the comment is 10 or 11 years old, goes to a neighboring school and obviously his parents are not keeping an eye on how he uses Facebook. I naively thought that there should be an easy way to report, as a parent, what I know has happened. Here is how it went.

1. I tried to select the comment and report it directly. However, comments can’t be reported. Only wall posts, photos and pages can. So I decided to report the case as though I am not a Facebook user.

2. I received this standard letter back from Facebook:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The best way to flag abusive content on the site is to use the “Report” links that appear near the content itself. When a report is submitted, we will review it and take any action warranted by our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Remember that you should also contact the authorities if you ever feel threatened by something you see on the site.

This comment was not threatening. It was mean-spirited and among children, could be far too hurtful to allow. But it is not something that the police should be notified about. Does Facebook think users should be allowed to do anything which does not blatantly break the law? Why not add some basic tools for parents to be involved in their kids accounts?

To submit a report, please take the steps listed below:

• Report a profile: Go to the profile and click the “Report/Block this Person” link that appears in the left column below the profile photo.

Ok, I did this. But a list of choices appears that are not relevant to the incident. I want to tell them I am an adult/parent and this person is harassing my child. No such option:

• • This is my profile, but I no longer have access to it
  • This person is annoying me
  • This profile is pretending to be someone or is fake
  • Inappropriate profile photo
  • This person is bullying or harassing me

• Report a post or comment: Move your cursor over the top right corner of the post or comment you want to report and click the “x” report link to “Report as Abuse.”

This does not seem to work for comments. Believe me, I checked.

• Report a photo: Go to the specific photo and click the “Report This Photo” link that appears below the photo.

This works — and I suspect it’s something Facebook must need to be very good at or else risk all kinds of liability issues.

• Report an inbox message: View the message and click the “Report Message” link that appears below the sender’s name. Note that you can only report messages from non-friends.

This is absurd. Why can’t you report friends? Among kids today, the abuse is taking place primarily among “friends”.

• Report a group or event: Go to its main page and click the “Report Group” or “Report Event” link that appears at the bottom of the page.
• Report a Page: View the Page and click the “Report Page” link that appears in the left column below the Page photo.

We also recommend that you consider blocking the user involved in the report. People you block won’t be able to find you in searches, view your profile, or contact you with pokes, Wall posts, or personal messages. You can block people by adding their names to your block list at the bottom of the Privacy page, or by checking “Block this person” when you report them. These people will not be notified when you block them, and any existing ties you have with them will be removed.

OK, I agree that you should block people who are jerks and not friends. And in theory, if someone posts mean, abusive comments on too many accounts, eventually, he will end up with very few friends and learn his lesson. But again, I am talking about kids here. And Facebook should stop playing dumb. They know young children are using Facebook — at least a few million — so they need to find ways to protect them.

For all reports, be sure to follow the instructions carefully when choosing the report category. If you are unable to report the content on the site for any reason, please reply to this message with as much information as possible to help us locate the abusive content.

I’ll give this a try.  But bottom line — it’s cumbersome to report abuse unless it is on your account. I could have sat with my daughter an reported it together with her. But she was nervous about everyone knowing that she is a tattletale.   I want to suggest to the Facebook team that they get serious about protecting kids. Acknowledge that younger kids are using Facebook, add capability for parents to be able to help their kids manage their accounts by requiring children under a certain age (16?) to add their parents as their “Facebook Guardians”, for example. You guys are smart –  I am sure you can think of something. Meanwhile, I’ll keep telling parents that they can always consider just blocking Facebook