FriendsReunited.co.uk, a web site putting former school pupils
back in touch with old friends, has come under fire from the
National Association of Head Teachers and the National Union of
Teachers for hosting offensive and libellous allegations about
teachers by bitter ex-pupils, according to a report in yesterday’s
Observer newspaper.
FriendsReunited.co.uk is currently the most searched-for site in
the UK through its success in bringing old friends back into
contact. However, it has also been used as a platform for ex-pupils
to post allegations of alcoholism and paedophilia in relation to
their former teachers resulting in complaints from the teaching
bodies. It does not monitor the comments posted by users, but
following the complaints, it invites visitors to report any abusive
messages so that the site’s administrators can remove the offending
content. It has also suspended the teacher comment section of the
site “whilst comments are reviewed.”
David Hart, president of the NAHT told the Observer, “We did
speak to the web site organisers after we had about 12 complaints
form members. The action they have taken is useful and they are
clearly no more keen on these messages appearing than we are.
However, if this abuse button does not do the trick then we will be
looking to have the site scrapped altogether.”
