Facebook agrees to child-safety measures

Facebook has reached an agreement with 50 attorneys general to permanently deploy measures designed to rein in pedophiles and other predators on the social networking site. Under the agreement, Facebook will allow people to change their ages from over 18 to under 18 only after the move has been reviewed and is developing age- …

[Samuel Walker]

Change their age

From over 18 to under 18....

surely they'll just set their age as under 18 when they initally sign up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good news

"But the danger faced by their younger audience took on increased urgency for obvious reasons."

Good headlines!

Oh wait, the other reason. Sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not Facebooks problem

Not Facebook's job to make sure teenagers use the site safely, its their parents.

[Anonymous Coward]

facebook apps

does that mean they're going to deal with the issue of applications allowing pseudo dating/chat interaction between over and under 18s?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the responsibility of the parent...

...to ensure the safety of their child online.

Allowing a child unrestricted acces to the net is the cyber-equivalent of letting them go out pubbing and clubbing alone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Small minority

Only a small minority of child predators fake their age, according to an American study. Just another "Won't Somebody Think of the Children?! " move which will yield very little effect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unlikely

"a set of safety tips juveniles will be required to read when signing up"

Surely you mean "a set of safety tips juveniles will *click past without reading* when signing up"...

[William]

duh

paris cause... the word blonde comes to mind.

agree witht eh report abuse button but whos gonna monitor it? could just be an ex thats pissed or somone playing the fool. the age thing... meh create a new account set age as 13 or something problemo sorted.... theres n way for FB to check if you've got like 10 accounts or you are who you say you are...what about a report this user - with reason and another "suspect lier" with reason..... ooo while we're talking about buttons.... might want to add a button that when clicked has a this is sparta and paris going down... er i mean into the pit animation... i wonder which will get clicked more

[John]

gah

lets see, does or has anyone ever read the terms and agreements for anything (credit cards, email a/c's etc)? why wud sum kid even bother. they have the attention span of a goldfish, so reading some shpeal of total and outter "this protects us incase of shit" conditions is a total waste of time....

Just make it simple for them to read "if they say they are Blond with blue eye's, they're really 50, overweight, and thinking of you in their fantasy's". Although even previous might be a little to hard for them to understand....Rewrite in juve txt form...its a disgrace to the english language...but least they might understand it