You may well call it a birthday gift from Facebook but now teenagers, who are not attending high school or college, can become members of the most popular social networking site on the Internet without having to fake any information.
The minimum age requirement to become a member of Facebook is thirteen (13) years but if anyone under the age of 18 wants to join Facebook, he should be studying in some high school or college else his membership would be in violation of Facebook terms. That was Facebook’s official policy until yesterday:
This site [Facebook] is intended solely for users who are thirteen (13) years of age or older, and users of the Site under 18 who are currently in high school or college. Any registration by, use of or access to the Site by anyone under 13, or by anyone who is under 18 and not in high school or college, is unauthorized, unlicensed and in violation of these Terms of Use.
Clearly, Facebook had no checks in place to prevent teenagers from signing up even if they were not attending school so Facebook decided to modify the eligibility criteria and the latest terms read something like this:
You may not use the Facebook Service if you are under 13. If you are between the ages of 13 and 17, we strongly suggest that you seek parental consent to use the Facebook Service.
The "high school" requirement is no longer in place and anyone between the age of 13 and 17 can now join Facebook without issues. And getting a consent from parents is just a "suggestion" and not a "mandatory requirement".
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Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/facebook-open-for-teens-not-attending-school/7040/
Tags: exclusive, facebook, feature, parenting, privacy, Internet
Reader Comments
Facebook rarely excersies its own rules. There are a lot of hate groups which are obviously flourishing amidst the massive abuse report emails sent to facebook.
For instance , facebook cant demolish the “f*** islam” or “f*** christianity” for their own reasons?!?!?
Cuz I heard the owner of facebook is a jew.
Man … religion.. cant they just screw religion on facebook??! Or for the least, screw these hate-based religion groups..
Written by Mohammed Irfan on 02.04.09
@Mohammed Irfan: Actually, you can report these groups for violation of Facebook ToS. Just use the ‘Report Abuse’ link. You see, there are so MANY Facebook groups that it’s not possible to keep a check on all of them.
Written by Ankur Banerjee on 02.05.09
@Ankur Banerjee
There is a particular group , (i am talking about a single group) where it has been for around 1 year or so and its still active and alive despite the thousands of muslims reporting against it using the report abuse. And no action has been taken whatsoever.
How can facebook ignore the abuse reports that they get??
Written by Mohammed Irfan on 02.05.09