Many UK parents are ignoring Facebook’s age limit and letting under 13-year-olds access the social network, according to a UK government minister.
Children’s minister Tim Loughton believes parents are putting their children at risk by helping them to set up Facebook profiles and were even helping their child ‘lie’ to go on the site.
He said some parents were ‘aiding and abetting’ youngsters to set up pages on the social
networking site despite an age limit of 13, an accusation which follows a claim by a Google executive that it was up to parents to shield their children from internet pornography.
Facebook’s UK policy director Simon Milner told the Daily Mail that parents will help a child by adding ten years to their real age. “It’s a problem and we have found no solution to it. It is very difficult when a parent is helping a child lie to get around it.”
