Internet safety consultant and author Charles Conway says that ignoring the website?s age limit could land both children and their parents in legal hot water
According to the latest research by EU Kids Online, 43% of 9-12 year olds in the UK are actively using Facebook, despite the site imposing an age limit of 13 and above.
Internet safety consultant and author Charles Conway says that ignoring the website?s age limit could land both children and their parents in legal hot water and expose them to penalties which could include up to two years imprisonment.
Why does Facebook have an age limit?
The Facebook age limit has nothing to do with UK law.
It?s a requirement of the US Child Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA), which forbids US based websites from collecting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without parental consent.
Rather than try and gain that consent for every preteen that wants to join the website, Facebook decided instead to ban users under the age of 13 from the site altogether.
If it?s a US law, how could it land a UK child or parent in jail?
The COPPA legislation couldn?t. The burden of responsibility is on the website operator to ensure it complies with the law, not the user.
There is, however, existing UK legislation that Charles says could be used to make it a criminal offence for preteens to sign up for the site, and for parents to let them.
Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 defines an offence of gaining ?Unauthorised access to computer material? and states that a person shall be guilty of an offence if:
a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer, or to enable any such access to be secured ;
b) the access he intends to secure, or to enable to be secured, is unauthorised; and
c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.
Offences under this legislation carry a maximum penalty on conviction of up to two years in prison, a fine, or both.
But doesn?t that law just apply to hackers? I still don?t understand how my 11 year old could end up with a criminal record for using Facebook
?The important thing to note is that Facebook doesn?t allow under 13s to join the site and its terms and conditions state clearly that anyone below that age should not use the site? says Conway.
?That means that anyone under the age of 13 signing up to the site is gaining ?unauthorised? access and could potentially be committing an offence under the legislation every time they log in.?
The legislation says that my child has to know that their access is unauthorised. Couldn?t they just say that they didn?t know they shouldn?t use it?
?When a user signs up to Facebook, they have to provide their date of birth, and agree to the terms and conditions of access to the site.? he goes on to explain
?If a date of birth is entered that reveals that the user is under 13, the site clearly displays a message that states ?sorry, we are not able to process your registration?. In order to successfully register an account, the child has to provide a false date of birth that puts them at 13 or over.
It would be difficult to argue that the child didn?t know that they shouldn?t use the site when they have had to lie about their age to gain access.?
How could parents be held accountable for their children breaking the law?
Charles suggests that if parents, foster carers or anyone else with responsibility for children allow those children to use Facebook, they could be equally guilty.
?This is where the secondary offence of ?enabling access to be secured? comes in. By allowing a child to use a computer to access Facebook with their knowledge and approval, or helping them to set up an account, it could be argued that those parents or carers are ?enabling? the child to gain unauthorised access to Facebook?s servers.? according to Charles.
?In theory (as a prosecution has never been brought in the UK courts), a defence of ?due diligence? on the part of the parent would be the best option. Showing that they have used a combination of parental supervision and web filtering software on all of the Internet enabled devices that their children have access to would demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent their child from signing up to Facebook in the first place.?
Should we be criminalising kids?
Charles is keen to point out that he wouldn?t want to see children being locked up for using Facebook.
?I don?t believe that children should be prosecuted for signing up for Facebook. However, if it were made clear that it was an offence to have an underage account (or to ?enable? the use of that account) it would drastically reduce the number of underage users on the site, which would improve the online safety of children everywhere and give parents the ammunition they need to withstand the pressure from kids who tell them ?but everyone else is using it.??
What do you think? Should the law be applied in this way to reduce the number of preteens on Facebook?