Australia Considers Facebook Age Limit

Enlarge image

Adult-Only Facebook Pondered by Australia

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Facebook Inc., the world’s biggest social network, should have access restricted to people older than 18, some Australian politicians say in response to concerns over online bullying that led teenagers to commit suicide.

Facebook Inc., the world’s biggest social network, should have access restricted to people older than 18, some Australian politicians say in response to concerns over online bullying that led teenagers to commit suicide. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Facebook Inc., the world’s biggest
social network, should have access restricted to people older
than 18, some Australian politicians say in response to concerns
over online bullying that led teenagers to commit suicide.

Australian top law enforcement officials, attending a two-
day forum in Adelaide that began yesterday, discussed proposals
from South Australia’s Attorney General John Rau that would
require Facebook to verify the ages of people creating accounts
or force the website to guarantee parents access to their
children’s accounts.

Facebook, which says it has more than 750 million users
worldwide, has more than 10 million in Australia, or half the
population of the country, according to social media tracking
website Socialbakers. About 14 percent of the users are under 18
years of age, according to the website.

“We most certainly could regulate any Australian entity,
so that we can specify that the age of consent was 18,” Robert McClelland, the federal attorney general, told reporters outside
the meeting yesterday, according to a transcript provided by his
office. “Having Australian jurisdiction extend offshore is the
challenge.”

Rau was asked to propose “a model that does work” to the
rest of the attorneys general, McClelland said.

Stuart Wragg, an outside spokesman for Facebook in
Australia, declined to comment.

Parent Access

After today’s meeting, the attorneys general issued a
communiqué stating that they discussed concerns about parents
being unable to access or otherwise deal with inappropriate
content uploaded onto their child’s social networking pages.
They didn’t elaborate.

The discussion follows last year’s report from the Mental
Health Council of Australia, a non-governmental organization,
that cited three instances of teenagers taking their own life
after being bullied or threatened online.

The cases included that of Alex Wildman, a 14-year-old who,
committed suicide and, according to the investigating coroner,
bullying at school and on the Internet played a “significant”
role in his death.

While the politicians’ desire to protect children from
online predators is “well meaning” their approach shows they
don’t understand the Internet or how it works, Susan McLean, the
first police cyber safety officer in the state of Victoria and
now an online consultant, said in a phone interview.

“It’s entirely unrealistic,” she said. “Mark Zuckerberg
isn’t obligated to listen to Australians,” McLean said,
referring to Facebook’s founder.

Underage Accounts

Children will lie about their age, McLean said. Parents
will create accounts for their underage children. It already
happens with those as young as eight, who have Facebook accounts,
even though the website restricts membership to those 13 and
over, she added.

“I had one mom say to me: I can’t say no. She won’t like
me,” referring to her eight-year-old girl, McLean said.

Some parents have also called for tighter restrictions
after Facebook-advertised parties have spiraled out of control.

In Helena Valley, Western Australia, police had to don riot
gear in February after coming under siege by as many as 300
drunken children, including some as young as 10, who pelted the
officers with rocks and bottles, Perth Now, the on-line version
of Perth’s Sunday Times newspaper, reported.

The party had been organized by a 14-year-old who posted
details on Facebook, according to the article.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Joe Schneider in Sydney at
jschneider5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Douglas Wong at
dwong19@bloomberg.net

Share and Enjoy