Advertisement

Parents lying about kids' age on Facebook

EVANSTON, Ill., Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act undermines a parent's ability to make choices about children's online usage, a study released Tuesday said.

The study -- conducted by researchers at New York University, Northwestern University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University -- said social networking sites like Facebook choose to restrict access to children based on COPPA, but parents will often help underage children set up accounts. The researchers say this creates safety and privacy issues by not allowing parents greater control over what their children do online and what data are collected about them.

Advertisement

The study found 36 percent of parents surveyed said they knew their child joined Facebook before reaching the minimum age of 13, and 68 percent of those parents helped their child create an account. Fifty-three percent of parents knew there was a minimum age to join Facebook and 35 percent think that age is a recommendation, not a requirement.

"COPPA is well intended but has major unintended consequences in terms of encouraging general-purpose websites like Facebook, Skype, and Gmail to limit kids under 13 from accessing educational and social opportunities," the study said.

Advertisement

Latest Headlines