Now that a fetus has a Facebook page it is blatantly obvious that kids younger than 13 are on Facebook. COPPA legislation pretty much precludes kids under 13 from using the US based service but I know of kids as young as 7 in my tiny hometown using it.
All you have to do is lie. Check the box. Say you are 13. Doesn't matter if everyone knows you are not.
Go ahead, set your profile settings any way you want even if you can't read the word privacy. You said you are 13. It is ok.
We won't let your parents know you have a page. We don't have to. Everyone knows you are on Facebook but them and you're 13, right?
In fact, companies can do anything they want as long as they can make the end user want their service enough to lie and check the little box. No one reads that anyway. To be on Google, you say you are old enough to sign a contract. In most ages that is 18.
It isn't that I don't think kids these ages shouldn't be on these sites. It isn't that I agree or disagree about the laws.
What makes me sick is lying. Being fake. Not telling the truth. Pretending.
As I write this my nephew is telling me about a kid he knows who is 15 but Facebook says he is 18 (he must have signed up when he was 10 and has been aging- his page went public)
These are our children, they are precious. The problem I have is that when they are young and vulnerable they need lots of love and guidance and they can opt out of that by checking a little box.
A little box that a child can check just doesn't make this ok.
– Posted using BlogPress from Vicki's iPad
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