Though Facebook bans children under 13, millions of them have profiles on the site by lying about their age.
The company is now testing ways to allow those kids to participate without needing to lie. This would likely be under parental supervision, such as connecting children’s accounts to their parents’. Like many other online services, Facebook doesn’t let kids under 13 because the law requires companies to get parental consent if they want to collect information about those children.
Such information collection is central to Facebook. Every photo or status update a kid posts on Facebook could count as information collection. Many companies consider the parental-consent requirement too burdensome, so they simply ban all children under 13 instead.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some movement from Facebook this before the end of the year,” Balkan said. “By the way I think it would be a good thing if they do it right, rather than this untenable situation of just kicking off under-13s when they discover them.”
What do you think? Should kids under 13 be allowed on Facebook?
(Source: CBS News)
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