Facebook Removes 20,000 Underage Users Every Day

Facebook's privacy policy states that users must be at least 13 years old to create an account. Nevertheless, scores of underage users allegedly skirt the social network's rules by listing false ages.

An Australian Senate cyber-safety committee recently asked Facebook's chief privacy adviser, Mozelle Thompson, to address the network's growing problem of underage users. Thompson's response revealed a startling statistic about the number of underage users who are being removed from Facebook each day.

"There are people who lie. There are people who are under 13 [accessing Facebook]," said Thompson, according to Australia's Daily Telegraph. "Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage."

Those 20,000 suspect profiles are just the tip of the iceberg. In the United States, 3.6 million underage users access Facebook each month, ComScore reports, according to the New York Times. ComScore also notes that not all these visitors have Facebook accounts and that some may be viewing Facebook pages that are open to the public. Nevertheless, experts fear that brief, unsupervised contact with the massive social network may expose children to bullies, predators and inappropriate content.

"This is something that we work on all the time," Thompson said, according to ABC News Australia. "There's a lot of things on Facebook that happen on Facebook that don't happen every place else. Like limits on nudity [and] other things - you can't do those things on Facebook."

Though Facebook's security team has no surefire check against children who list false ages or visit the site's public pages, the network's policy is to remove children or information about children from the site as swiftly as possible.

Thompson said that the site plans to hire a cyber-safety policy expert in Australia to help deal with Facebook's underage users in that country. The site will also continue to work on safeguards for minors, such as a "cybersafety help button," Thompson told the committee.

Facebook's arm in Great Britain launched a "panic button" in 2010 to protect minors from sexual predators online. Still, these measures do not prevent children under 13 from accessing the site.

[via AllFacebook]

Comments

[dtayloe]

07:23 PM on 04/05/2011

I am a 10-year veteran consulting and certifying web site operators globally about how to comply with US law the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). I have kept a close eye on how general audience sites like Facebook approach their compliance with COPPA. The Facebook TOS are likely 13+ because they simply do not want to have to comply with COPPA nor do they want to provide special protections for any particular user group. COPPA would require FB to get obtain verifiable parent consent if they were to allow kids to be truthful about their age and gain access. It is all about “actual knowledge”. If they don’t have actual knowledge then they don’t have to do anything to gain it. Unfortunately a vast number of U13 kids on FB lie about their age but many do so with their parents knowledge. The parents seem to buy into it being OK for their kids to age up/fib/lie/exaggerate…. in order to access to the site. Almost like it is as innocent as sneaking into an R rated movie or saying your 14 yr old is 12 so he/she can get the free kids meal or discount. This may not be what parents want to hear but Facebook can continue to look the other way as long as kids and parents are willing to be part of the deception.

[NeoConsAreFinished]

05:18 PM on 03/25/2011

Anyone notice how Mr Facebook looks a lot like Rand Paul the Delusional?

[JaxReader]

04:31 PM on 03/25/2011

So how do they find out the kids lied about their age, to remove 20,000 a day?

[Dawn Wacek]

09:40 PM on 03/24/2011

Oh my goodness. Can we not teach our children to be savvy users of technology and information? Do we really expect massive corporations to protect our children from the world? Of course your child or mine could see something scary online. They could be exposed to danger, mean-spiritedness, violence, sexual imagery etc. They could be exposed to the same things on the playground, too. We can't raise kids in a bubble. Instead, let's use these opportunities to teach our children about how to navigate this frightening, wonderful world.

[vidmagic]

02:20 PM on 03/24/2011

History truly is cyclical. For so many years we have feared the real streets for our kids. Now the virtual street is looking far more dangerous. Time to send your kids back outside to play.

[Ramkshrestha]

07:17 AM on 03/24/2011

Yes ids spoiled a lot in many ways due to Facebook.

[hawhite2000]

03:35 AM on 03/24/2011

To be perfectly honest I feel like children should not be allowed on the internet without parental supervision. I know a lot of people who are buying their children laptops and they naturally take their laptops to their rooms and surf the web where no one can see them. Why does a child need a laptop? Where are they going? They can sit right at the desk and use the desktop in the family room.

Children should not be on facebook for the same reasons that children shouldn't talk to strangers....

[Rich Moraghan]

12:25 PM on 03/24/2011

" I know a lot of people who are buying their children laptops and they naturally take their laptops to their rooms and surf the web where no one can see them." -- Kids also masturbate where nobody can see them, as do adults. what's your point? Do you force your kids to keep the bathroom door open, when they are defacating, so you can micro-manage every single minute of their day? Are you insane?

[hawhite2000]

05:46 PM on 03/24/2011

I am not insane, but I really think that people should be a little more cautious when giving children such tools. I can only assume from your response that you make the assumption that I am referring to older children. Children of all ages are getting on facebook and many children are very young who are given laptops. Laptops are meant for people who need portability and children aren't traveling places where they need a laptop. It is a nice to have, but not a need.

Generally parents try to make sure that the people that children come in contact with are not people who would harm their child and that can't be done if the child is hiding things from their parents. Children will try it is in their nature, to expect any different is to invite disaster. What is the point of protecting a child from the molester down the street and not from the online predator?

[Dukedraven]

03:03 AM on 03/24/2011

Yeah, Facebook, keep the kiddies out. I stopped using AOL chat rooms 16 years ago because of the brats getting on.

[J the Mac]

01:44 AM on 03/24/2011

you would think HuffPo would pull a story after it had been proven false earlier in the day but alas no. Sticking to your guns, even when everyone knows you're wrong. I like that!

[Allen Bouchard]

08:45 AM on 03/25/2011

What part of the story is false? Can you provide a link to a source that says the quoted people didn't say what the story claims they say, and has some kind of proof that they didn't say it?

[Wombaticus]

01:00 AM on 03/24/2011

Can anyone enumerate a real risk that is posed by having an underage person on Facebook that is not bigger and worse in the real physical world, or even their daily school experiences? I am seeing a lot of "of course its dangerous", but I don't see how this is worse than the real world? Remember these are the modern kids who have access to the wild uncensored INTERNET already. Happy to read any coherent responses and be educated.

[Janzell Jurilla]

10:33 PM on 03/23/2011

I'm little confuse, How facebook know if the account is under 13 year old above? since you can create a fake age to create your account?

[lilylee86]

10:15 PM on 03/23/2011

I don't think it is quite easy.
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[Ramon Moreno]

10:12 PM on 03/23/2011

There goes what was left of my social calendar.

[Rich Moraghan]

12:26 PM on 03/24/2011

x-D

[Mister Grumpy]

09:05 PM on 03/23/2011

The simple solution would be to require a valid credit card number from a parent with permission for them to obtain membership........... and don't tell me that won't work either..........

[vyskol]

01:16 PM on 03/24/2011

I don't have a credit card and I refuse to further empower these leaches by getting one. Requiring a valid credit card number for anything is ridiculous.

[gotta BKD]

03:02 PM on 04/12/2011

Nope would not work either... Kids are crafty...this is what they would do: steal cc or obtain #, get friend or self to give themselves permission to use cc and still obtain access.
I know a (then) 10yr old whose parents did not even know she was on fb until she "friended me" just before her 13th B'day.
I casually mentioned to the parent Oh I see your kid uses facebook and has been for 2yrs. They said "pardon me, they are not allowed on there"
Surprise...
Kids are crafty, when they want something, they will figure out a way to get it.

[ruffmama]

06:43 PM on 03/23/2011

There is no way to truly know someone's age and there is always a way to beat the system...it is up to the parents.