Does Facebook Know Breast?

The Early Show: Web Site Under Fire For Removing Pictures Of Mothers Breastfeeding

(CBS)  The social networking Web site Facebook is coming under fire for its policy on "pics" new mothers post showing them breastfeeding their children.

Facebook has become a ubiquitous part of our social and professional lives - the place where millions go online to see, and be seen. But the company says some breastfeeding pictures go too far, CBS News correspondent Michelle Gielan reports.

"It's natural and it's how you feed babies," Heather Farley, a Facebook user who had breastfeeding pictures removed in November.

Later that month, while on Facebook, Farley noticed a new group called "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!"

Nearly 90,000 users have joined the group.

Last week, Farley led a much more modest number of protesters outside Facebook's Palo Alto, Calif. headquarters.

The Web site responded in a statement saying users are not permitted to show a fully exposed breast.

"We take no action on the vast majority of breastfeeding photos because they follow the site's Terms of Use," the statement said. "These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children who use the site."

Former journalist and NYU professor Jeff Jarvis said Facebook should be wary of caving in to demands by small groups of people upset by pictures of breastfeeding. "If anyone can complain about anything then everything is forbidden," he told CBS' The Early Show.

Facebook was created in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in his dorm room. The site initially only accepted students. But in 2006 it expanded to allow people of all ages to join, and it quickly became one of the most popular social networking Web sites in the world with more than 140 million active users.

Now, the Web site with a meteoric rise in popularity, finds itself in the midst of an online uprising over what is permissible on a persons page.