Don’t expect to friend Malia or Sasha Obama on Facebook any time soon.
The first daughters aren’t allowed on the social network. The President and First Lady confirmed the news in an interview yesterday with People magazine.
“Why would we want to have a whole bunch of people who we don’t know knowing our business?” Pres. Barack Obama told the interviewer. “That doesn’t make much sense.”
The First Couple said they hadn’t had any trouble enforcing the rule. Since Malia and Sasha are aged 13 and 10, respectively, they have yet to take an interest in joining Facebook. It’s unlikely many of their friends use the platform either, since Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities requires users to be at least 13.
“We’ll see how they feel in four years,” the president said.
Even though Obama’s statement to People is generating buzz on the social Web (600+ mentions today for “Obama Facebook” compared to a usual 150), it’s nothing new.
In February, Michelle Obama told the Today Show that Malia and Sasha, then ages 12 and 9, weren’t allowed on the social platform. She expressed her relief that the Secret Service won’t allow the girls to sign up.
“I’m not a big fan of young kids having Facebook,” she said.
If you want to “friend” the First Daughters, you’re out of luck. However, you can still “like” them: Both Sasha and Malia have their own fan pages. Each page has a sizeable following (Sasha has 3,000 fans and Malia has 650), but commenters realize that they’re not the real thing.
“I wish this is really Malia Ann,” wrote Ademuwagon Emmanuel.
Photo by Tracy Russo
