Facebook denies plans to open up site to under-13s

Facebook has outright denied that it will change its rules and officially allow under-13s to join the social network, following a report claiming the opposite.

Simon Milner, head of policy in Britain for Facebook, had been quoted inThe Sunday Times as saying Facebook had plans to lift the ban.

He told the paper that the decision to allow children to create profiles was still a very early stage.

However, a Facebook spokesman has outright denied that there are any plans to allow children under the age of 13 to join the site.

They told The Telegraph: “We have no idea how The Sunday Times concluded that we are opening up to under-13s from the conversation Simon Milner had with them. All we have said is what we have been saying for months – that minors on Facebook and the internet is an important issue – and we want to work with the broader industry to look at ways of keeping minors safe. The headline …from the Times is no reflection of that conversation.”

This is in stark contrast to comments made by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief, last May, when he argued that children should be allowed to use the social network.

Speaking at a summit on innovation in schools and teaching in Newark, New Jersey, last May, Mr Zuckerberg said that the current age limit would be challenged “at some point”.

Claire Perry, Conservative MP for Devizes, who has campaigned for online safety, said at the time that she “would be very uncomfortable about extending this and I think it’s very, very irresponsible of Facebook to be suggesting it”.

“With close parental supervision all of these social networking sites can be interesting and enjoyable. But I know from my own experience it is all too easy for a young child to get involved in situations that I think are really uncomfortable,” she said.

Facebook’s usual 13-and over age limit elsewhere is dictated by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which became Federal Law in America in 1998. However, current UK legislation does not preclude Facebook from being used by under-13s – but the site’s own terms and conditions do. The US is currently reviewing its COPPA legislation. In Spain, only those children 14-and-over are permitted to use Facebook because of national legislation.

Mr Zuckerberg claimed last year that the educational benefits of using Facebook were so great that children should be allowed to use the site. The site currently closes the accounts of 20,000 underage users per day.

“My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age,” Mr Zuckerberg said. “Because of the [legal] restrictions we haven’t even begun this learning process. If they’re lifted then we’d start to learn what works.”

Mr Milner told The Sunday Times: “There is reputable evidence there are kids under 13 who are lying about their age to get on to Facebook.

“Some seem to be doing it with their parents’ permission and help.

“We have a strict under-13 rule because of legal issues in America and we apply the same rule all over the world.

“But a lot of parents are happy their kids are on it.”

Facebook has been criticised by a range of Government agencies in the past for failing to police its own policies that prevent children from using the site and for not preventing paedophiles from accessing the social network under an alias to groom children.

The NSPCC has emphasised the need for media literacy and online education. Claire Lilly, the charity’s sexual abuse policy advisor, has said: “There have been great benefits brought by the internet but there online bullying is particularly prevalent on social networks.

“The Information Commissioner has said it is about the age of 12 when a child can understand the risks of handing over personal data and we would agree with that. We would like to see safety tools as prominent as possible and social networks should be proactively trying to identify individuals who pose a risk, not just reacting to reports from children.”

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre revealed in 2010 that complaints about grooming and bullying on Facebook had quadrupled in the preceding twelve months.

Facebook’s $38-a-share flotation last week, values the company at $104bn – more than any other company in history has been worth on its market debut.

Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9279448/Facebook-denies-plans-to-open-up-site-to-under-13s.html