It’s become one of the most pressing questions for parents of children growing up in the digital age: When should they let their children join Facebook or should they be on the site at all? An estimated 7.5 million preteens - including 5 million under 10 - are part of the social network in violation of Facebook’s terms of service, according to Consumer Reports.
A study last month funded by Microsoft Research in Cambridge found that many under-age users were aided by parents who either lied about their child’s age or were simply unaware Facebook has age limits.
According to the report, “Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age,’’ 78 percent of parents say they would let their child join a website in violation of age requirements. When asked about Facebook’s age policy, the report found that only 53 percent of parents said they know the site has a minimum age and only half of those know it is 13.
The study calls into question the effectiveness of age limits for sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google, since many parents are often unaware they exist and see little problem with ignoring them.
Ambivalence about age limits has alarmed many specialists, who have created a cottage industry out of advising parents about the pitfalls of Facebook. They say unleashing young children onto a site originally created for college students opens them up to any number of grown-up scenarios - from navigating complex relationships to exposure to scams - that they often aren’t old enough to handle.
Democratic Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts held a briefing in Washington yesterday for lawmakers and specialists on the issue of online privacy, including the topic of young children on Facebook. The social media company recently settled a Federal Trade Commission case over past privacy practices.
