Facebook Reportedly Developing Tech to ‘Friend’ Kids Under 13

6-7-2012 National:

Citing unnamed sources that have spoken with Facebook executives, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the social networking giant is building mechanisms that would connect children’s accounts to their parents’, letting parents decide who their kids can “friend” and what applications they can use. Facebook executives couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the story.

Though Facebook currently boasts about 900 million users across the planet, today it does not grant accounts to anyone under the age of 13. However, the company has no way to verify whether someone is lying about their age.

Facebook earns a huge portion of its revenue from the games that companies like Zynga build atop its platform. Expanding its user base to younger children would widen that potential market.

Not everyone likes that idea.

“What Facebook is proposing is similar to the strategies used by Big Tobacco in appealing to young people – try to hook kids early, build your brand, and you have a customer for life,” said a statement from James Steyer, the CEO of Common Sense Media, an organization known for taking a protective view of children on the internet.

Since Facebook members often enter a great deal of personal information into their profiles, the social network comes under regular fire for its use of the data in targeting advertisements and peeking into what users are up to in their daily lives.

Judging from the Journal’s report, however, the move to allow younger Facebook users is hardly a done deal. Known for its “hacker culture,” Facebook often builds tools and features that aren’t implemented. ..Source.. by Catleb Garling

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Should 11-year-olds join Facebook?

Should young children be able to use Facebook?

And if so, under what conditions?

Those are the questions bloggers and Twitter users are batting around the Internet on Monday following a news report saying Facebook is looking into ways it could let kids under the age of 13 use the site with parental consent.

Currently, Facebook bans children younger than 13.

Data from Microsoft Research and Consumer Reports, however, show that many kids use the site anyway, often with their parents' knowledge. A 2011 Consumer Reports survey found 7.5 million people younger than 13 use the site; nearly a third of 11-year-olds and more than half of 12-year-olds use Facebook with their parents' knowledge, according to a 1,007-person survey supported by Microsoft Research. ..Source.. by John D. Sutter, CNN