Facebook Stays Quiet on Plans to Let Children Under 13 Join
Facebook is dodging questions about plans to open its network to young children, two concerned House lawmakers said today. In June, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook was exploring technology that could allow kids on the site under parental supervision. Responding to a letter from the House representatives, Facebook explained it had not yet made a final decision about officially allowing the under-13 audience. It also did not answer questions about what kinds of data it would collect or advertisements it might show to them.
The company faces pressure to protect the millions of children who lie about their age and use the site anyway. Concerns include predators and the troubling rise of cyber-bullying. But opening up to a massive new market of users won’t hurt Facebook’s business either, and that is what has privacy advocates concerned. As Facebook tries to grow its use and revenues on mobile devices, it’s interesting to think that these children are the first generation growing up as smartphone-natives.
Keep Reading
Most Popular

Toronto wants to kill the smart city forever
The city wants to get right what Sidewalk Labs got so wrong.

Saudi Arabia plans to spend $1 billion a year discovering treatments to slow aging
The oil kingdom fears that its population is aging at an accelerated rate and hopes to test drugs to reverse the problem. First up might be the diabetes drug metformin.

Yann LeCun has a bold new vision for the future of AI
One of the godfathers of deep learning pulls together old ideas to sketch out a fresh path for AI, but raises as many questions as he answers.

The dark secret behind those cute AI-generated animal images
Google Brain has revealed its own image-making AI, called Imagen. But don't expect to see anything that isn't wholesome.
Stay connected

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.