Facebook’s terms of service may not permit users under the age of 13, but that hasn’t stopped a growing number of children from setting up profiles on the site.
Minor Monitor, a tool that promises parents to “protect your children on Facebook,” surveyed 1,000 parents in the U.S. about their children’s Facebook activity. Their findings were alarming. Based on the parents surveyed, 38 percent of all kids on Facebook are under 13.
In fact, some of the kids are much younger than that. Out of 1,000 children represented by their parents in the survey, 40 were six or younger.
Based on the findings, children aren’t casual users, either. While a survey of all Facebook users indicates that the average person spends an hour per day on the site, the children in this survey doubled that.
Seventy-four percent of the parents surveyed said they worried about their children’s safety. Out of a list of concerns, fear of sexual predators beat out oversharing, talking to strangers, and cyber-bullying by a wide margin.
However, all of the parents had permitted their kids to use the site in the first place, despite the practice being forbidden by Facebook. If you ask us, it sounds like there’s an easy fix to these concerns: sign off.
Check out the infographic below.
Photo by Ernst Vikne
