‘Age limits may hit Ghana’
FACEBOOK’S head of public policy yesterday said the company could not introduce tougher age verification checks... because it might stop children in Ghana from signing up.
Niamh Sweeney was responding to criticism that under-age children found it too easy to lie about their age and get a Facebook account.
It was pointed out that under-age children cannot get a credit card online because an applicant’s identity and true age is verified by banks before they will issue one.
She replied: ‘We are a global platform, what do we do if your child is in Ghana and you don’t have access to your parent’s credit card or national ID?
‘I think you have to remember that there are limitations in place and if you are going to exclude a lot of people... but it’s an issue, no doubt about it, but as I said sometimes there are limitations to what the technology can do.’