Tuesday 3 June 2014

Facebook May Let Kids Under Age 13 Join


Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook is working on a way to allow children under 13 years old join the social network.
The company has designs for a system that allows children younger than 13 to be supervised by parents, according to a new patent, to comply with the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (Co ppa), which prohibits children under 13 from using online services that collect data without explicit “verifiable parental consent”.
Facebook currently bans users under 13 from joining the social network.

“Child safety advocates, policymakers and companies have discussed how best to help parents keep their kids safe online,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement sent to the Guardian. “Like any responsible company, we looked at ways to tackle this issue, but a patent application based on two-year-old research is not a predictor of future work in this area.”

The truth is that children below 13 years are now on Facebook, with  or without parental consent. It's becoming harder keeping kids out of social networks these days as long as they use handsets that are internet enabled.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Mr Omoruyi Uwuigiaren, Cartoonist & Writer

Author's Hangout with Zizi Mr Omoruyi Uwuigiaren, popularly known as Ruyi, is a former freelance cartoonist at Vanguard Newspapers.  He ...