Facebook Takes Down Thousands of Tween Profiles
Typically when we write about Facebook it’s riddled with invective about its liberal use of your personal information, its unchecked spam applications, and even its ability to ruin marriages. Today, however, we appluad the social networking site’s efforts in removing approximately 20,000 underage users every day.
A 2011 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has shown that nearly 50% of all 12-year-olds in the US are on Facebook, despite not meeting the site’s age requirements. Teens from 13 to 17 see a massive increase in usage of the social network, with user numbers jumping from 64% to 82% in that 4-year period.
While removing 20,000 underage users per day seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the 600 million users the site boasts, it’s a start—and a statistic for parents to note as they’re monitoring their children’s Internet usage.
As Facebook’s privacy regulatuions get more and more lax, it’s important to remember who are the most vulnerable to predators: older users (who should know better) and the youngest users (who may not know better) who post sensitive personal information. The predators who target younger users, however, typically aren’t looking to steal identities, which makes them far more vulnerable to the deadlier side of online abuse.
(Via CNN) / (Image by Camila Oliveira, licensed under Creative Commons)
