By Katharine Rushton, Media And Technology Editor For The Daily Mail
A watchdog has warned Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat to tighten up their age controls and clamp down on underage users.
The Information Commissioner’s Office stepped in after it emerged that the social media platforms were letting millions of British children on to the platform before they were 13.
New ICO guidelines state that social media giants must examine whether they put children at risk – by showing minors adverts for alcohol or gambling, for example.
The guidance, which is under consultation, also calls on the firms to do a better job of kicking underage users off their platforms, and to stop or deter children from sharing their information online.
Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, said: ‘Whether designing services to provide protection for children or having a system to verify age, organisations, including social media companies, need to change the way they offer services to children.
‘It’s also vital that we ensure children’s interests and rights are protected online in the same way they are in all other aspects of life.’
The ICO is acting as fears grow that children are signing up to social media websites long before they are emotionally equipped to use them.
In November, a damning Ofcom report revealed that half of British 12-year-olds and more than a quarter of ten-year-olds have their own social media profiles.
In a story on the Mail’s front page yesterday, Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, warned that youngsters faced an ‘avalanche of pressure’ online. She said children as young as ten depended on social media ‘likes’ for their sense of self-worth.
At the moment, all the major web giants demand that users are over 13 before they get an account – but they do next to nothing to enforce that rule.
Facebook and Snapchat ask users to enter a birth date, but do not ask for verification, so children often trick the system.
Twitter, and the Facebook-owned platforms Instagram and WhatsApp are even more lax.
They simply tell the user that they have automatically agreed to terms and conditions by signing up for an account.
Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat insist it is unrealistic to have to verify the age of users under the age of 18.
But anyone with a government ID, such as a passport, can access security ‘tokens’ to prove their age online.
Web giants could also force under-age users to get permission from a parent, who must prove their own age and identity.
The crackdown was welcomed by campaigners.
John Carr, of the UK Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety, called it an ‘unprecedented breakthrough’, while Andy Burrows, of the NSPCC, said: ‘Social media sites must be forced to prove that they’re age appropriate and safe.’
Facebook said: ‘If an under-age user is reported to us, we remove their account.’
- Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg yesterday made it his New Year’s resolution to fix a problem with fake news.
In a post, he said it was his ‘personal challenge’ for the year to crack down on hate speech and ‘interference by nation states’, adding: ‘We make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools.’
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