Survey shows 7.5 million Facebook users aged below 13

Beijing time May 10 Evening News, a new survey by the US consumer report shows that of the 20 million underage users on Facebook, 7.5 million are younger than 13, and 5 million users are younger or less than 10 years old.　　Facebook's terms of service require users to be older than 13 years. A survey conducted by McAfee in 2010 showed that 37% of children aged 10-12 were using Facebook. A study published in April this year by the London School of Economics also shows that 38% of the 9-12-year-old Europeans use social networking sites, of which 1/5 use Facebook.　　In some European countries, this percentage even reaches 40%. Jeff Fox, a consumer report editor Jeff Fox, says most parents are currently less concerned about how children younger than 10 years of age use Facebook. The consumer report points out that using Facebook poses a security and privacy risk for children and their friends and families.　　Over the past year, more than 5 million American households have been exposed to a variety of information security threats, including viral infections, identity leaks and bullying by children, as a result of the use of Facebook. Facebook said in a statement, "Recent reports indicate that it is difficult to impose restrictions on the age of users on the Internet and that there is no independent way to ensure that young children do not use the system and they may lie about their age". Facebook also said: "We appreciate the reports and other experts ' attention to this issue." We believe this will provide an opportunity for parents, teachers, security professionals and Internet services focused on this area to ensure that young people of all ages are safe online. "The problem now is that Facebook and other social networking sites rely primarily on users to provide information."　　Although Facebook designed the system to identify users who lied about their age, the system is still far from perfect and the problems are not easy to solve. Facebook set the minimum age limit for users to 13 years, mainly based on the 1998-Year Online Privacy Protection Act for children. The law requires Web sites to obtain permission from their parents when using data from any child younger than 13 years of age. Facebook can relax the age of the user and adapt the service to the law, but it will pay a huge price. Facebook needs to change not only its terms of service, but also its privacy and advertising policies for young children. Currently, Facebook has a dedicated privacy policy for young users aged 13-18. (D-Gold)