Underage users a problem for Facebook

The popularity of social networking sites makes them attractive to children, but it’s also providing them with a new platform for bullying behavior, reports Canada.com.

Facebook’s terms of service require that all users be over the age of 13, but there are concerns that many parents are complicit in allowing their younger children to create accounts.

According to a study by Consumer Reports, 7.5 million of the 20 million U.S. Facebook users are actually under the age of 13 – and five million of these are under the age of ten.

The same study found that at least five million American households have been the victim of some form of abuse through Facebook, including identity theft, virus infections and bullying.

The problem has become so bad in France that education ombudsman Monique Sassier spoke out, reminding parents to stop young children from using the site and urging the minister to sign an agreement with the site to automatically terminate the accounts of underage users, reports Ouest-France.

According to Facebook’s terms of service, they will delete accounts that violate the rules. However, underage children typically register a false birthdate in order to get around the restriction, making them hard to detect.