James Delahunty
24 May 2011 20:32
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that kids under 13 years of age should be able to use the social networking service.
As things stand, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (1998) determines that children under the age of 13 should not be able to use such services for their own protection. Zuckerberg disagrees with the law and has said he would be willing to fight it.
"That will be a fight we take on at some point," he said. "My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age. Because of the legal restrictions we haven't even begun this learning process. If they're lifted then we'd start to learn what works."
Speaking at a summit on innovation in California schools, Zuckerberg said finding ways to improve education was one of his passions.
While critics have concerns about children's privacy and cyberbullying as they upload content to sites like Facebook, it is becoming increasingly apparent that implementing effective age restriction mechanisms on websites is not easy.
Consumer Reports estimated that 7.5 million kids under the age of 13 are regularly using Facebook.