<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19154"></HEAD>
<BODY style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 15px"
id=MailContainerBody leftMargin=0 topMargin=0 CanvasTabStop="true"
name="Compose message area">
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>
<DIV id=entryhead><SPAN class=timestamp>Posted at 02:47 PM ET, 11/01/2011</SPAN>
<H1 class=entry-title>Parents help underage children lie to get on Facebook,
survey finds</H1>
<DIV class=blog-byline>By <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/cecilia-kang/2011/02/28/ABFs9eL_page.html"
rel=author>Cecilia Kang</A></DIV></DIV>
<DIV id=entrytext>
<P><SPAN class=imgleft><IMG border=0 align=bottom
src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_296w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/10/12/National-Economy/Advance/Images/Tech-Companies-Facebook/2011-06-13T172316Z_01_SFO13_RTRIDSP_3_FACEBOOK.jpg?uuid=ySvxDPT0EeCp3bQ8yO0I9A"
width=228><BR><SPAN class=blog_caption>(Robert Galbraith - Reuters)
</SPAN></SPAN>Millions of <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/underage-and-on-facebook/2011/06/12/AGHKHySH_blog.html"
target=_blank>underage</A> children are signing up for Facebook, and a survey
released Tuesday shows parents are helping their children lie to get online.</P>
<P>The minimum age Facebook<A href="https://www.facebook.com/terms.php"
target=_blank> sets</A> for its social network is 13 — in line with federal laws
to protect children’s online privacy.</P>
<P>Yet according to a study funded in part by Microsoft and universities, more
than half of all parents with 12-year-olds said they knew their children were
signed up for the service. One in five parents of 10-year-olds knew of their
children’s activity on the site.</P>
<P>Asked how the kids signed up for the service — thus violating the site’s
terms of service — nearly seven in 10 parents said they helped their children
set up accounts.</P>
<P>“There has been outrage about underaged children being on Facebook. And as it
turns out, many parents are not only okay with it — they are helping their
children set up accounts,” said Danah Boyd, a Microsoft researcher and co-author
of “<A
href="http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3850/3075"
target=_blank>Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About
Age</A>.”</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3850/3075"
target=_blank></A>The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, drew from a
random sampling of 1,007 parents age 26 and older with children ages 10 to 14
living with them.</P>
<P>The survey comes amid a debate over the <A
href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Fpost-tech%2Fpost%2Fchildrens-internet-privacy-comes-into-congress-view%2F2011%2F10%2F05%2FgIQAIgzmNL_blog.html&ei=ozewTsqjLofe0QHwg8S1AQ&usg=AFQjCNF6JpIQRBqxfr7y8huIvoYFXilAHw&sig2=FMcDcVkaqmd-5u5o89Apvw"
target=_blank>Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act </A>, known as COPPA, in
a new era of mobile apps and other technologies not clearly covered by the
12-year-old law. Consumer Reports recently reported that 7 million underage
users were on Facebook.</P>
<P>Opponents of recommendations by the Federal Trade Commission to update the
law say age limits for Internet services don’t prevent children from using
age-restricted sites.</P>
<P>They say companies should be allowed flexibility to experiment with new
services and technologies without new regulations.</P>
<P>Boyd said she found in the study, co-researched by professors from
Northwestern University, the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard,
that parents wanted their kids online early.</P>
<P>“They don’t want to be told how to be a parent,” she said.</P>
<P>They often help their kids set up e-mail accounts to communicate with
relatives and friends. </P>
<P>And for Facebook, with 800 million users, parents want their children to be
part of the biggest conversation platform on the Web, Boyd said.</P>
<P>But privacy advocates say the survey didn’t ask parents where they were fully
aware of what data were being collected about their children from sites such as
Facebook. If parents knew that sites such as Facebook collect information to
tailor ads, advocates say, they would be more cautious.</P>
<P>“Few parents — let alone children and teens — understand or can control the
data collection and online targeting applications deployed by Facebook’s social
media surveillance system,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of privacy
group the Center for Digital Democracy. If parents knew, “a very different set
of answers would be given.”</P>
<P>According to the survey, one in five parents acknowledged having a
10-year-old on Facebook. That number rises to 32 percent for parents of
11-year-olds and 55 percent for parents of 12-year-olds. </P>
<P></P></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>__________________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
title="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>