In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about the “art” of Google searches, cyberbullying laws “Down Under,” and whether or not Facebook is “arrogant” about protecting its users from stalkers and sexual predators.

–

Facebook “Arrogant” About Child Safety

Facebook has been taken to task by Jim Gamble of the UK-based Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre for being “arrogant” in how the site is handling child safety issues. In recent months, Facebook has faced increasing criticism from safety groups over the perception that the website is a haven for sexual predators. Facebook hasn’t helped its cause any by agreeing to install a “panic button” for users, but only in a specific portion of the site and not on every page.

UK Survey Shows Social Networking Keeps Families Closer

According to a UK survey, one in five Brits use social networking websites like Facebook to find out what is going on in the lives of their family members. The survey also showed that 30% of people feel their family knows more about them than ever before thanks to social networking websites.

There are two ways to look at this. One way is that it’s a good thing because Facebook is helping forge conversations that might not take place otherwise, helping to strengthen familial bonds. The other way to look at this is that more and more of our family members are turning to social networking, which means we should all be a bit more careful about what we share online and how we configure our privacy settings.

First Look at Twitter’s New Profile

GigaOm (working off a scoop from Icodom) has a report of Twitter’s possible new look. The snapshot, uploaded to the web design forum Dribbble, shows a Twitter profile with numerous enhancements over the current iteration, including information about how long the user has been on Twitter, their average number of tweets per day, and what percentage of those tweets are replies. It’s an interesting possible change for one of the web’s fastest growing social media websites.

Former Australian Justice Discusses Cyberbullying Law

Alistair Nicholson, the former chief justice of Australia’s Family Court, told ABC news recently that he believes Australian law has not evolved quickly enough to deal with the growing problem of cyberbullying.

Arguing that prosecutors are forced to use alternative laws to charge cyberbullies, Nicholson said, “In the state system, you tend to get it in the stalking area and you may also with some of the sexually explicit communications get into breaches of pornography laws [that leads] to children, quite young people, being placed on sexual offences registers… [for behavior] that has nothing to do with the sort of behaviour that those registers are aimed at.”

The problem of properly prosecuting cyberbullies has been expressed by judicial officials and politicians in other countries, including the United States, as well.

Artist Turns Google Searches Into Art

Recently, All Things D writer Peter Kafka profiled artist Ken Solomon, who gained inspiration for his most recent show from the web and, more specifically, Google search results.

From the article: “Solomon is a Brooklyn-based artist who has spent the past couple years working on stuff with a digital bent. One recent strain: Recreating the contents of a Web browser, such as Google results pages and Facebook profiles, using watercolor on paper.”

Listen to Solomon explain his art in his own words below.