Inappropriate friend request

[Kimberleykarlss]

My son has had two friend requests from nude women. He is 8. Luckily he has no device and it comes straight to me. Why is it IV never had these requests? It's like they are purposely targeting children's accounts. I have blocked both. Please advise on why this is happening? 

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you for the reply. My account and kids accounts have always been on private, which is why I was so angry that I had no answers from Fitbit. I’m a big Garmin fan but Fitbit has better kids watches in my opinion, I just didn’t get the feeling they were too hopeful they could stop this spam.

[M0th3r0fDr4g0ns]

The 'friends request' that my children have been receiving have the naked profile picture! And the picture is the first thing you see when opening the email.

Same here. I was, and still am, very upset that they were able to send friend requests to my children, I am glad that the request was sent to my email first, but I should not have to deal with pornagraphic pictures in my email either. I woke up this morning bracing for how many request I was going to have to deal with.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[SunsetRunner]

1. it's not a campaign.  It's a Fitbit issue.

2. As I said - it hasn't closed yet - but the take out offer has been agreed to - which doesn't happen without detailed discussions / review of books etc. They've agreed to be a Google co and effectively are.  Google should have interest in this.

3. Porn is being directed at our children - as many here have said - and unfortunately received.  That it's been also sent to adults does not negate the porn directed to Fitbit kids. 

[SunsetRunner]

Fitbit have not responded to me at all.  I'm returning the device to the store today. I'll contact head office to make them aware of this fault and that by selling fitbits to children, they are at risk at being exposed to porn. I can't imagine how many parents will have to go through this disappointment/ shock especially at Xmas time and am even more concerned if kids actually see the images.  Fitbits need to come off the market until this is resolved or else only be available at R rated adult shops

[Odyssey13]

@SunsetRunner  how did you contact support? There is no instant way to fix the problem and Fitbit isn't the only company that has this happen. Lock down your settings to private.

[SunsetRunner]

Fitbit is breaching data privacy laws around the world by enabling porn to make contact with our children. If my daughter saw the images that I saw in my email inbox,  I would be taking this a lot further. I gave customer service 24 hours and nothing has been done. I have returned the fitbit and now have a Garmin. I informed the store manager of this issue and will also be contacting the head office to let them understand what's happening to children's fitbit accounts. 

There are instant ways to fix this,  if the company actually cares.

[SunsetRunner]

Googled “Fitbit support call“ then asked to talk with supervisor.

Sent from my iPhone

[Odyssey13]

@SunsetRunner  when we join the forums, we agree to abide by the Terms of Service - click to read them - and moderators have the ability to do what it takes to abide by those rules. Fitbit allows us to disagree about something or complain, but it's how we do it that makes the difference. 

[Rich_Laue]

 @SunsetRunner you may want to check your facts. Google has no relationship with Fitbit. 

When requesting friendship, Fitbit only gives the option to press a button. Nothing, not even a note may be added. 

It is possible to send a request through email, but your sons email is not registered with Fitbit. It may be possible to send the person a private message with an included friend request. If this is the case, the message needs to be flagged, so Fitbit can take action. Failure to flag means Fitbit will never know. 

[Rich_Laue]

I got in my email a copy of the post in question. It was not deleted because of the mention of the porn but for what @Odyssey13 pointed to. Follow her link to the community guidelines. 

[Odyssey13]

@SunsetRunner  I'm sorry you've had a horrible experience, but you're not alone in having this happen. You keep saying your post will be deleted soon and it might be removed, but only if a moderator feels it violates the TOS.  Why not take some time to explain to your son about things he might see on the internet. With kids more online than ever before, it's just a matter of time before he stumbles across something. It's best if you open the lines of communication now so he knows he can always come to you about anything.

[KarieKnuth]

Did you not read the comments?? Everyone’s accounts are private and we’re still getting these requests so there is a breakdown that we are trying to inform Fitbit about.  And we know it can’t be fixed immediately- we are just looking for some indication that they hear us and are hopefully working on it but they have chosen to ignore everyone and have offered no apology- that’s the LEAST they could do and would go a long way to soothe peoples fears about their product.  

[SunsetRunner]

The frustrating thing is that they can make immediate changes. They just changed me from a 'first stepper' to a 'jogger'. Surely they can monitor profile pictures as well.  That's a very basic service. I work in technology,  the fact that they haven't considered their customers data privacy is extremely disturbing,  even worse for underage customers. 

[Odyssey13]

@SunsetRunner  first stepper to jogger is your rank. The more you post, the higher your rank. I've been here for over seven years, which is how I got my rank.

[SunsetRunner]

I think you're missing the point. Children must not see porn. That is the point

[myriam4psy]

I also got a full frontal nude friend request. I'm 32 and I was disgusted. Weird way to start my morning. I can't IMAGINE how I would feel if my child's got this picture.

[MatthewFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi Everyone, Thank you for reporting this issue to us. 

We are aware that users have reported receiving spam friend requests to both adult and child accounts, and we have implemented a fix to mitigate the issue. Please continue to report these malicious accounts so that our moderators can take appropriate action - see this help article for instructions. 

It’s important to note that any friend requests sent to a child are routed to the parent for review and approval, and that children do not receive those requests. We apologize to anyone who received these requests, and as part of our fix we have put in place additional controls to protect against similar issues in the future.

Thanks for your patience.

[Garrob]

Hi there  The user concerned has no profile to report

Moderator Edit: Spam link removed

[dan.tee]

I think there's a very big question here, that has not been answered yet. How did these porn scammers get my son's email address? How did they actual initiate a friend request? My email address is all over the internet - his was only set up this year and I think he's only used it on Nintendo! How did they do it? Are we talking about a major security breach here? Over to you Fitbit - I fear a shedload of trouble ahead....

[SunsetRunner]

I suggested doing that (sending issue to media - to motivate them to at least respond that they're working on it), and did it, but they just removed my posts. 

A quick solution is easy - the problem is friend requests include the requestor's profile pic (which apparently fit bit doesn't screen) - so some are simply putting porn into their profile pic and using friend requests to send it out.  (How they're apparently getting email addresses - if they are - sounds like a breach).  So fit bit just turn off the profile pic inclusion into friend requests temporarily until you write the code that would enable only accounts with a screened or approved profile pic to send friend requests that include the pic.  Almost all accounts probably rarely change their pic so you, or ai, would only have to review it once.  The porn spammers obviously change the pic frequently and would have to wait for the screen - and then be denied.  

Maybe they've done that in their mentioned fix.  We'll see. 

Google is buying the co.  They should have easy ai to screen pics.