Facebook ban for under-13s

CHILDREN will be banned from joining Facebook and Twitter until they are 13, under legislation to be debated by peers this week.

The Data Protection Bill will legally enshrine the age at which children are allowed to create accounts online. Sites would be breaking the law if they knowingly allowed a child under the age of 13 to register. However, minis- ters are working to head off a possible defeat in the Lords by cross-party peers who insist the measure must be accompanied by new rules forcing companies to adapt their sites for younger users.

The move comes as the Home Secretary is to separately urge the internet giants to “go further and faster” in their efforts to tackle child sexual exploitation, during a visit to the US this week. Amber Rudd is expected to warn firms

that technology has made “vile child sexual abuse content vastly easier to find”. It is their “moral duty” to “help us turn the tide on this horrendous scourge”, she will say.

Tomorrow peers will debate an amendment to the Data Protection Bill, backed by the Children’s Society and NSPCC, tabled by Baroness Kidron.

This would introduce a set of minimum standards for the “age-appropriate design” of websites. Supporters say the standards could include applying the highest possibly privacy settings to children’s accounts by default, and restricting the number of notifications they receive during school hours or at night.

Ministers say that 13 is already being adopted by websites as a standard age from which parental consent is not needed to process data online. Individual sites such as Facebook already impose a minimum age of 13, and the Bill would simply enshrine that age in UK law across all companies that process individual data on the web. Lord Ste- venson of Balamacara, a Labour frontbencher, said: “We need urgently to be focusing on what measures the big data sites must take to make sure that all children, and vulnerable people, can use their services in a safe way.”

An NSPCC spokesman said that when children as young as 13 signed up to an account, “everything should be designed for a 13-year-old rather than assuming children can make sound choices like adults”.

Lady Kidron said: “This is about all internet platforms and services – not just social media. So whether Amazon, a school, or a game, by asking for and accepting a child’s consent... you would have to offer minimum standards of age-appropriate design.”

Last night Matt Hancock, the minister for digital, said: “We are strongly in favour of protecting children online and have sympathy for the sentiment behind the amendment… However, this amendment risks creating confusion and disproportionate legislation as part of the data protection bill.”