Facebook targets under-13s to sustain growth

FACEBOOK has quietly started talking to the federal government about its controversial plans to let children under the age of 13 use its social-networking site.

Officially, Facebook bans under-13s. However, the site's age verification system is simple to fool and online audience ratings agencies estimate that about 200,000 Australian children under the age of 13 visit the site each month.
US papers have reported that Facebook wants to develop technology that would let under-13s use the site legitimately with the consent of their parents.

The move will allow Facebook  to tap the demographic for new revenue, but also inflame child-protection and privacy advocates.
A spokesman for Communication Minister Stephen Conroy said Facebook had discussed the move with the Department of Broadband through its cyber-safety consultative working group.
"Through the working group, the potential for undr-13s to access Facebook has been
discussed with the department " the spokesman said.
"However, at this time the department has not sought advice form Facebook on the application of this potential policy."
Speculation has been growing that Facebook is pushing to open its site to under-13s to open a revenue stream in the lucrative game advertising market.
That could help ease pressure on the company to explain how it will sustain the 88per cent revenue growth it achieved last year and which has intensified in the wake of its troubled float last month.

However, authorizes are unlikely to be sympathetic if the move increase the risk of more high-profile cases of cyber-bullying and harassment of minors on the site.

In a related issue, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said yesterday that children would  be given additional protections as part of the government's privacy reform legislation.

Ms Roxon said she had also asked her department to conduct further work to protect children's privacy.

When contacted for comment yesterday, Facebook's Australian subsidiary referred The Australian to a statement on the issue that its parent company had already issued in the US.

In its statement, Facebook said it was in dialogue  with regulators and policymakers about "how best to help parents" keep their kids safe in an online environment.

Analyst firm Nielson Online said that in Australia 184,000 or 43 per cent, of the 428,000 Australian children between the ages of two and 11 who went online in April visited Facebook.