Some parents believe that ‘friending’ their child on Facebook is adequate to ensure safety,” Mike Betron, VP and General Manager of MinorMonitor, said in a statement. “This simply provides a false sense of security as children are still able to engage in private conversations and post questionable material without their parents seeing this as a friend.” ...
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MinorMonitor offered the following tips for parents:
Know children’s passwords and other login information, and teach your children not to share their passwords or personal information.
Keep Facebook profiles set to private, and know Facebook’s other built-in safety features.
Teach children about “friending” and that all requests from strangers should be declined.
Remind children that information posted online is public.
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The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) mandates that websites that collect information about users aren’t allowed to sign on anyone under the age of 13. As a result, Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities require users of the social network to be at least 13 years old (and even older, in some jurisdictions).
Last year it was estimated that 7.5 million Facebook users are below the minimum age. To make matters even more worrying, more than 5 million were 10-years-old or younger. Both those numbers have undoubtedly grown since.
For its part, Facebook says it’s a very tough problem to solve.Complete article with infographic:
https://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/38-of-kids-on-facebook-are-under-the-minimum-age-of-13/11745
