Facebook Popular With Pre-Teens
A recent survey has found that the popular social networking giant Facebook, had over 7.5 Million US users last year, who were under the age of 13. Out of these almost 5 million were 10 or even younger in age. This is in spite of Facebook's supposedly strict age restrictions that only allow those who are 13 or older to register on the site. The survey clearly shows that Facebook is most popular with pre-teens and teens with a total of 20 million American users who are under 18 years in age.
This survey indicates the blaring holes in the Facebook safety tools. The safety system works on the premise that when someone under the age of 13 tries to register on Facebook, they are prevented from doing so. Furthermore cookies try to stop the person from trying to register again. But there is a basic flaw in the system, it only relies on the children disclosing their real age while trying to sign up.
"This is a tricky issue, and there is no easy solution to make sure that underage children don't lie about their age while signing up," stated Andrew Noyes, Facebook's Manager of Public Policy Communications.