Facebook asked users whether it should allow men to ask kids for ‘sexual pictures’

Facebook has come in for criticism over a question in a user poll over the weekend.

A question in the site's survey on Sunday asked whether it should allow men to ask 14-year-old girls for explicit photos. The question read;

"In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Facebook’s policies, how would you handle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-year-old girl for sexual pictures."

It provided a number of possible answers to choose from, including "this content should be allowed on Facebook, and I would not mind seeing it". A second question asked users who should 'decide the rules' on site when it comes to grooming. None of the questions mentioned getting police or other authorities involved, reports The Guardian. Facebook today apologised for the questions, calling them "a mistake". "We run surveys to understand how the community thinks about how we set policies," said Facebook's Head of Product Guy Rosen on Twitter. "But this kind of activity is and will always be completely unacceptable on FB. We regularly work with authorities if identified. It shouldn’t have been part of this survey. That was a mistake."

We run surveys to understand how the community thinks about how we set policies. But this kind of activity is and will always be completely unacceptable on FB. We regularly work with authorities if identified. It shouldn't have been part of this survey. That was a mistake.

— Guy Rosen (@guyro) March 4, 2018

Men asking 14-year-olds for sexual pictures is illegal and "an appalling abuse and exploitation of children," said MP Yvette Cooper. "I cannot imagine that Facebook executives ever want it on their platform but they also should not send out surveys that suggest they might tolerate it or suggest to Facebook users that this might ever be acceptable," she said.