Facebook has responded to calls for increased online safety by announcing a range of new measures including a 24-hour police hotline, a £5m education and awareness campaign and a redesigned abuse reporting system, but has declined to add a logo linking to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

The site is also calling for the government to introduce ways of sharing strategic data on offenders with other social networking sites, following a similar initiative in the US.

Facebook came under renewed scrutiny last month after the conviction of the serial rapist Peter Chapman, who posed as a young boy on the site and later murdered 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall.

"The investments and partnerships we've announced today will transform social networking safety and security," said Elliot Schrage, vice-president of global communications and public policy at Facebook.

"They represent the most comprehensive public/private safety initiative since social networking began in the UK almost a decade ago."

Child safety charities, anti-bullying groups and political parties have called for Facebook to introduce a so-called 'panic button' to the site, but Facebook has resisted.

A spokesperson said the company had looked closely at safety solutions on other sites and concluded that a single reporting button would be less effective for users, and also create an overload of work for the police and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop).

Facebook's existing reporting procedure handles around 10,000 requests in the UK alone that include password requests and problems with profile pictures, as well as more serious problems. Instead of a single contact button or Ceop logo, Facebook has developed a reporting procedure accessible from the bottom of every profile, which asks the user to block a contact for nudity, racism, bullying or unwanted contact.

"We are testing and we are open to ideas, refinements and improvements, but we fundamentally feel that ours is the right approach. No other sites have one 'panic button' and we would not be doing our job properly if we added one button that sent all reports to Ceop," said the spokesperson.

"We know about web design and Ceop knows about child protection. We want to marry those skills – not argue about web design. We have some of the best engineers in the world creating for our platform."

Facebook, which has 23 million users in the UK, is also dedicating £5m of advertising space for safety campaigns. Ads by charities including the NSPCC, Beatbullying and the Family Online Safety Institute will be displayed to all Facebook users, the site said, aiming to raise awareness of online safety not just to younger users but to parents and other users.

Ceop's chief executive, Jim Gamble, last week criticised Facebook for failing to "understand prevention or deterrence", but after extensive talks with the firm in Washington he said the new initiative was "one small step from doing the right thing" and is still insisting on a single, Ceop-branded button.

"There is no doubt they are looking to improve their position around child safety and we recognise that. What I am looking for is turning words into action," said Gamble. "In our view they are experts at creating a fantastic online environment but they are not experts in law enforcement, the power of deterrents and the reassurance it brings for mums and dads."

Gamble also claimed Facebook had not passed on any reports directly to Ceop, though the firm claimed this was down to US legal restrictions.

MySpace includes a "report abuse" link at the bottom of every profile, which links to an email contact form where users can detail cyberbullying, phishing, inappropriate content or a page that mentions suicide. Every Bebo profile has a similar link, which asks users to chose between reporting site abuses such as hacking or explicit content to Bebo, or to send reports to Ceop.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".