Social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook are leaving leave children vulnerable to abuse from paedophiles by refusing to embed a free online safety button on their sites allowing users to report abuse, according to the senior policeman responsible for child protection online.

Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) which devised the “report button”, has launched an unprecedented attack on the sites saying that it is time for them to stop hiding behind excuses and put their money where their mouth issign up to its free abuse button.

After years of trying to get them to use CEOP’s free abuse button, which links children and teenagers to advice sites for bullying or abuse, as well as directing them to counsellors and law enforcement staff, Mr Gamble said that he had had enough of their “red herrings”.

Yesterday Bebo announced that it would be using the CEOP button. In the past three years 5,000 investigations have been initiated because of information received from someone using the button and 800 arrests made.

Mr Gamble said: “We want to see the big sites doing the same thing. We have spoken to some of them and they are trying to pull relationships with CEOP closer to the surface but that is not good enough.

“We give them the button to put on every page. Will children be safer? Yes. If you have not got this button, the question is why not.

“We are saying it’s time to up your game and stop hiding behind red herrings of technical difficulties. We have to draw a line in the sand and do the right thing and if you don’t we will continue to badger and demand these environments are made safer."

He said he did not accept any of the rhetoric about technical difficulties.

Mr Gamble said: “If you wanted to put a tiny advert in, see how technically difficult that would be!

“We want a visible deterrent and reassurance and a button that tells children ‘you are only one click away from advice (and) help’.”

He argued that any referrals from the links are monitored by CEOP free of charge and so does not put any pressure on staff of networking sites.

Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said that he would encourage other sites to copy Bebo and embed the CEOP Report button.

Mr Gamble added that he was worried that some of the social networking sites were so big that he had no influence over them at all, so was instead appealing to the people that occupied senior positions in the “multi-million dollar companies to do the right thing for the right reasons”.

“What they sacrifice is space for advertising. It is easy to say the right thing but this is about demonstrable leadership.”

Asked if the social networking sites were putting children at risk, he said: “If you are a paedophile or someone that goes out to engage children under false pretences and bullies them into meeting in the real world, are you going to want to go into an environment where you know there is an online partnernship with law enforcement or an environment with no visible partnership?

“If it was me I know where I would go. If you are a burglar and go down a road of big houses that are all identical, do you burgle the ones with an alarm or without?

His purpose was to deter paedophiles from entering social networking sites. “Children deserve protection because they are vulnerable.”

Agreeing that he was speaking about MySpace and Facebook, he added: “There are one or two very large social networking sites that encourage children to frequent these environments because it generates millions in advertising revenue.

“The time has come for these few organisations to catch up with the rest. There is a duty of care and responsibility that must lie with a few social networking sites that have not done what others have done and put child safety first.

“I know Facebook and MySpace have teams of people trying to protect children, I don’t understand why they don’t accept professional support from credible sources with access to law enforcement with executive authority.”

Richard Allan, Director of Policy for Facebook, said that the company was having ongoing discussions with CEOP to find the best way to protect its users.

He said that his site had automated systems to detect unusual behaviour from users and anyone seeking to “befriend someone else for unpleasant purposes” would be warned or banned.

It also had its own automated reporting system.

One of the practical issues it had was that a lot of the complaints would not be relevant to CEOP.

“Clearly CEOP do not want that traffic and that is a practical issue we have. Our interest is absolutely about creating a safe environment, that is our bread and butter.”

A spokesman for MySpace said: “The safety of users is of paramount importance to MySpace. We have robust procedures in place to protect young people on our site, and worked directly and closely with CEOP to establish our Report Abuse processes in the UK. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with CEOP in the future.”