Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Is Not Opening Up To 13-Year-Old Users

PARIS (Reuters) - Facebook is not working on opening up the world's biggest social network to children under the age of 13 in the short term, founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday, contradicting some media reports.

Facebook, which has more than half a billion active users, operates policies around the world not to register children under a certain age. The age varies by country but is typically around 13.

"We're not trying to work on the ability for people under the age of 13 to sign up," Zuckerberg said when asked about the issue at the e-G8 Internet forum in Paris on Wednesday.

Zuckerberg said comments he had made at a conference last week at an education conference, when he said regulations made it difficult for children to sign up for Facebook, had been taken out of context.

He said the complexity of protecting children online meant the question was not a priority for the company.

"That's just not top of the list of things for us to figure out right now," said Zuckerberg. "Some time in the future, I think it makes sense to explore that, but we're not working on it right now."

Zuckerberg began the on-stage interview by batting away a question about Facebook's plans to go public with the answer: "Not yet". The company is expected to offer its shares to the public next year.

Facebook is expected to generate roughly $4 billion in advertising revenue in 2011, up from $1.86 billion a year earlier, according to market research firm eMarketer.

Its value has been estimated at up to $90 billion, based on private transactions on the secondary market.

Zuckerberg also played down the role his social network had played in revolutions that have rocked countries from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya.

"It's not a Facebook thing, it's an Internet thing," he said when asked about Facebook's part in the so-called Arab Spring. "I think Facebook was neither necessary nor sufficient for any of those things to happen."

"If it weren't Facebook, it would be something else."

Millions of users in the Middle East have used Facebook and Twitter to organise protests in recent months.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Will Waterman)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions

Comments

[okiemoderate]

11:36 AM on 05/26/2011

I once found a wallet with about $80 cash in while running. There was no ID or anything but there was a school picture with a name on it and a slip of paper with a facebook address written to the person in the pic. So I looked up the facebook address and up came this 11 or 12 yr old girl with NO privacy settings on her account. I was quickly able to see her list of friends, read her wall, see where she went to school, look at her pictures. I found the person in the picture listed among her friends and through HER unprotected site was able to connect her with her dad and send him a message about the wallet. Turns out they lived in my neighborhood and when they came to pick up the wallet, I informed him that his daughter's page was completely public. He was shocked and said they would take care of that (which they did when I checked later). There are lots of underage kids on Facebook but the problem is that they don't think to protect their accounts and they certainly don't think about what they post. If a bad person had found that wallet, they would have had this girl's entire schedule. I think it's a really bad idea for them to be on there but if they are, the parents need to be involved and check the privacy settings!!

[Joye]

01:04 AM on 05/26/2011

I was 14 years old and a Beatles fan; I know that was a long time ago; but now there are some 13 year olds dating... So sad what this world has become.

[Andrea J Petro]

10:51 PM on 05/25/2011

Open or not they are on it much younger. They set up fake profiles and have for years. Some parents allow it and others dont. There has to be some way track every user and profile.

[allwarisbad]

12:50 AM on 05/26/2011

Not so sure. On the Internet, yes, all types of places there are visited by sub-13 year olds.
But people join FB when their friends are on it. Thus being on FB in disguise does not serve the true purpose. Sure there are stalkers in FB as in real life - but below 13 is rare. Unless of course they after someone older ... :)

[Andrea J Petro]

07:06 AM on 05/26/2011

I would hope there are no stalkers below 13. There was a 10 yr old close to where I live that had a profile and an older man was stalking her on facebook her mom saw it and called police. there should maybe be a seperate entity where kids 16 and under can have profiles with parent consent which NO one can access unless a password is put in and parent can be verified license number etc to protect our children. Was there anything about stalking? I might have missed it and apologize if I read it wrong :(. My point was that kids make fake profiles all the time so their parents cant see what they are doing. Unless your comptuer literate you really wont find it. There was a man 24 posing as a 13 yr old I belive if memory serves me to lure young girls and then sexually attack them when they met up, just horrifying. thanks for the post and point of view makes sence. so many crazy people out there.

[Anne Petras Dischner]

09:28 PM on 05/25/2011

He isn't aware that all of my daughter's 10 year old friends have "fake birthdates" in order to use Facebook? Unbelievable and at a press conference in Paris, come back to the real world.

[theveggiedude]

11:15 PM on 05/25/2011

He said the issue is too complex to make it a priority. The real answer is for parents to do their job and not allow it. Personal responsibility folks!

[total frizz]

08:49 PM on 05/25/2011

Given the evolution of social engineering, I think it would be extremely easy to come up with a method of screening out those under a certain age. A simple series of randomly selected questions concerning events (gas prices in the 60s, etc.) could be very effective.

[theveggiedude]

11:17 PM on 05/25/2011

Are you kidding? Ever heard of google? Kids will be getting in and the adults who don't know how to google stuff will be lost.

[total frizz]

11:52 PM on 05/25/2011

Ever heard of timed tests.

[junhax]

04:55 PM on 05/25/2011

I think 9 year olds are smart enough to put their birthday at a later date.
This system is so sick I can't believe parents even let their 13 year olds have a facebook.
Whatever happened to friends and after school activities and naptime?

[Tmboy]

05:19 PM on 05/25/2011

Porn site only say "click here if you are 18". I there really a way to "protect" kids? Plus of all the things available online for kids to have access to you were kinda taking our eyes off the ball by focusing so much on FB arent we?

[beasteben]

10:45 AM on 05/26/2011

That home should have a parental web filter.