Facebook blames parents for letting under 13s sign up

IRRESPONSIBLE parents in Britain allow their children to lie about their age when setting up Facebook accounts, the firm claims.

Simon Milner, Facebook’s policy chief, blamed families for thwarting the firm’s rule of allowing only those aged 13 and over to register.

‘We have a fundamental issue in the uk that there are many parents who choose for whatever reason to allow it,’ he told the communications committee of the House of lords.

‘they know their children are on Facebook. often they have helped their children get on to Facebook. that is very, very hard, when that happens, for us to know that person is not the age they say they are.’

Mr Milner said Facebook knew many under-13s were using its service but warned there was no easy solution. ‘When millions of parents are making that decision, how can we enforce it?’ he said.

And he said teachers failed to report pupils using Facebook, adding: ‘Whenever a primary school teacher says to me: “I have a real problem, all the 11-year-olds in my class are on Facebook” I say they can report them all to us.

‘they don’t often do that because they think they will incur the wrath of the parents.’

But John Carr, an internet safety expert who has worked with the united nations and with Google, questioned Facebook’s approach to young users. ‘It’s very difficult to get Facebook to accept responsibility,’ he said. ‘the idea that they cannot stop it is nonsense. Facebook know what colour socks I wear. they know everything about everyone, that’s their business. the idea that they couldn’t solve or determine users’ ages with or without their parents’ collusion is not believable.

‘they don’t want to solve it, it interrupts their business model.’ Mr Carr estimated that three quarters of ten to 12-year-olds were on social media and many users were even younger.

ofcom research shows that the biggest increase comes between the ages of ten and 11, when the number with a social media profile doubles to 43 per cent.

the study also shows children are messaging during school hours. And nine per cent of 11 to 15 year olds communicate via social media at 10pm and 2 per night are still online at midnight.

Facebook is still the most popular social media site for youngsters but there has been an increased use of group messaging services such as WhatsApp. ofcom said many of these group chats were used for positive activities, such as homework groups, but they were also being used in less positive ways, with a fine line between banter and bullying.

Social media ‘ detoxing’ could improve your mood, according to findings published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, and Social networking.

More than 1,000 participants were divided into two groups – the first being told to continue using Facebook as usual and the second being told to stop for a week.

the latter group experienced a boost to their mental health.