BBC: Facebook Should allow under 13s

[elsiegee40]

BBC - Newsbeat - Facebook should allow under 13s says Mark Zuckerberg

Discuss!

Given that half the population on there is probably under 13...
Personally I'd drop the age to 10 or 11 when kids go to secondary school

[Steve21]

Discuss!

They should all be burnt for using Facebook in first place!



Steve

[Hightower]

Like Zucker's gives a donkeys neck about education for the kids. All he will care about is the income those 10/11/12 years olds are going to generate for him.

[elsiegee40]

I agree, but I'd rather kids were on there giving there giving their correct age than lying about their age. It's easier to give them some form of protection.

[sted]

tbh you cant stop it so make you may as well allow them BUT make it so their profile has absolutely minimal info so their name and maybe county thats it no school/birthday etc the boxes for that info should just be greyed out

[Theblacksheep]

I'm shocked he wants to get them all on the giant datamine younger!

Its funny that the people who laughed that you went on the internet in the 90s all revolve their life around facebook now. Personally I wouldnt let anyone under 16 on the cancer of the internet.

[Hightower]

When I was a kid I used to get in from school, get changed, and then go climbing trees, or building camps, or play football, or cricket. That's the problem with the world today.....

[elsiegee40]

When I was young, the world was black and white

[AngryTechnician]

Much more detailed article on this: Digital Life - Facebook is coming for your children

Unmentioned in the Fortune article on NewSchools Summit talk, however, is that lifting the age restriction might be a really, really good way to avoid future lawsuits like the three Facebook currently faces for failure to obtain parental consent for the use of minors' images in ads on the site.

Also unmentioned: Facebook's alliance with Google, Skype, Yahoo, Twitter, Zynga and — um — eHarmony to oppose a California children's privacy bill that would require users’ permission to display personal information, such as home addresses and phone numbers.

[Gatt]

Personally, I think the limit should be RAISED to at least 16 - maybe even 18

FB at the moment is a paedophile's wet dream.

I agree that anyone under the age of 18 should have, by default, a fully locked down profile and WITHOUT the option to unrestrict it, I also think that it should automatically notify parents/carers of all
chat and PM transcripts, as well as requiring parents to counter approve friend requests.

Draconian - perhaps, but as a father of a (as of today) 4 year old, who is already starting to find his way around FB simply by watching us, then I think it needs to be!!

[elsiegee40]

Personally, I thin the lmit should be RAISED to at least 16 - maybe even 18

FB at the moment is a paedophile's wet dream.

I agree that anyone under the age of 18 should have, by default, a fully locked down profile, I also think that it should automatically notify parents/carers of all
chat and PM transcripts, as well as requiring parents to counter approve friend requests.

Draconian - perhaps, but as a father of a (as of today) 4 year old, who is already starting to find his way around FB simply by watching us, then I think it needs to be!!

It would never work though. As a parent of teenagers, there would be no way of stopping this age group having their accounts. Although, I find it interesting that my two (aged 15 and 17) hardly ever go on facebook these days. The eldest uses skype to chat to her mates and the younger is on the xbox with his.

I think Zuckerburg would have a completely different view of this if he was parent though.

[maniac]

Personally, I think the limit should be RAISED to at least 16 - maybe even 18

FB at the moment is a paedophile's wet dream.

I agree that anyone under the age of 18 should have, by default, a fully locked down profile and WITHOUT the option to unrestrict it, I also think that it should automatically notify parents/carers of all
chat and PM transcripts, as well as requiring parents to counter approve friend requests.

Draconian - perhaps, but as a father of a (as of today) 4 year old, who is already starting to find his way around FB simply by watching us, then I think it needs to be!!

Nice ideas, but it just wouldn't work - kids would just signup for accounts and lie about their age like they do now, and there is absolutely no way of verifying it.

[pete]

Disagree, not because of age, but because Facebok is insecure by default and kids don't realise how insecure until they get bitten by it.

If I secure a Facebook account against people that I don't want to access my info, it only takes a Shiny! New! Feature! or back-end fiddling at FB to expose my info again.

That's unacceptable if you've got idiot children using it. (Yes, idiot adults as well, but I have no loco parentis responsibility for them)

[elsiegee40]

The trouble is that facebook is already here and kids are already seeing their parents, siblings and mates using it, so they want it too. That will not stop. It's better to have regulated use by children than banning everyone under the age of 18 and having every child under that age lying about how old they are.

[maniac]

The more you tell kids they can't do something, the more they will want to do it - that's pretty much a proven fact. Getting a Facebook account is almost becoming a rite of passage for kids these days and to them lieing about their age to get it doesn't seem such a big deal so regardless of any 'age limit' facebook might put on it, it's not going to stop kids signing up.