Zuckerberg Wants to Allow Under 13s on Facebook
Via the BBC: Facebook should allow under 13s says Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he wants the social networking site to let children under the age of 13 use it.
At the moment that age limit is dictated by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act which was made Federal Law in America in 1998.
But Zuckerberg says he’s willing to fight to change the law.
He says it’s a battle worth taking on because of the educational benefits of using the site.
Well, of course he does, given that the more users the site has, the more the system is worth.
Setting aside Zuckerberg’s financial interests, one has to admit that the 13 years of age cutoff is utterly arbitrary (not to mention the fact that the barrier is tissue thin, sine lying about one’s age is as easy as it gets, meaning there is no real barrier at the moment).
And in breaking news Reynolds American would like 8 year old to smoke sweetened Camels…
What makes him think that under 13s aren’t already on FB? I know for a fact many of them already have accounts.
@DC:
As the story notes, there are already hundreds of thousands of sub-13 year-olds on FB now and Zuckerberg certainly knows it. However, consider what could be done in terms of marketing if that was an official situation.
Yes, younger kids are on Facebook. And COPPA’s a silly mess, a bit of Luddite nonsense.