We know that the popularity of social networking sites is growing. An interesting point to this growth is that the number of young people, specifically 12-year-olds in the U.S., use of the social networks jumped to 38 percent in mid-2009 from 31 percent in 2006.
Another verification of the rise in more youngsters socializing on the internet is traffic monitor ComScore. The company figures that 3.6 million of Facebook’s 153 million monthly visitors in the U.S. are under 12. Yes, I know Facebook requires a minimum age of 13.
So now, we have a statistic called “underage social networking site users.” So, kids lie about their real age. A good guess is that many parents allow their children to “make believe” they are older.
All Headline News reports that FB’s chief security office tries to catch underage users, verifying a young member’s real age is both tricky and quite difficult task. Still, the FB officer said the portal has blocked new registrations or deleted accounts daily of underage users. And, I would like to know how FB figures that one out among its 600 million members worldwide.
Source: SocialTimes
http://www.socialtimes.com/2011/03/12-year-olds-flocking-to-facebook-does-underage-social-networking-matter/