Why Does Facebook Put An Age Limit To Users

We must ALL admit that Facebook is not fool-proof, despite the fact that it is thoroughly coping up and even getting ahead of what might occur as crime whether online or offline. Like any online platforms,

Facebook is among the most reputed channels for identity theft, for example, and the target is highly anonymous and hence unpredictable.

On the worst case scenario, the target might be the younger ones—those who invalidly open an account while bypassing the required age limit or restriction.

While for many years, Facebook enforced an age limit of 18, it was a little late when Facebook opened a bigger window for the younger users, now locking up at the age of 13. Talking about age groups, individuals with ages 18 and above are considered ‘adults,’ therefore accountable to the words responsibility and independence.

However, pulling the age limit down to 13 means that the platform is now made ready for the teens. Though these younger users may in an end or another be held accountable for their actions, the role of the parents in monitoring the adolescent’s activity is still vital and is supremely encouraged.

It can be funny to know, but there are several millions of users who are in real life younger than the new age limit, and the count includes even the infants whom their parents create their account under a ‘valid’ age information fill.

But the science and the idea behind the age restriction can be intuitive if not sensible enough for the sane individuals: with coherence to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), kids tend to venture beyond the borders of simply chatting with friends and family and playing social games, and this means that they may mishandle sensitive information, share sensitive files, and can even be victims of online bullying and other crimes which now are no longer exempted in the digital era.

The best part now goes to the role of parents in staying in touch and monitoring their online activities. Facebook offers a lot of parental methods in reporting, monitoring, and putting actions to some specific undesirable online activities, though the policies can still be argued as fresh and needs a lot more improvement.

For safety and security reasons, we’d wish Facebook to have a stronger enforcement of the policies which may be rethought later, especially if they are now planning to open a bigger window for users under the age requirement.