Australia Considers Facebook Age Limit

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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

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How Social Networking Fits in the B2B Search Marketer’s Toolbox

While there is no shortage of news and analysis on Google+, how this social network fits into the B2B marketing mix remains unclear. Even as social media adoption soars, B2B organizations face difficulty incorporating social media, tactically and strategically. A recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting found social media at the core of marketing initiatives for only 20 percent of participants surveyed.

In our company’s experience, of all social media classification types (blogging, social news, etc), social networking sites (beyond LinkedIn) remains the most challenging for the B2B organization to “get” the value. The MarketingSherpa chart below supports this notion, visualizing how the most difficult (yet effective) tactics involve the networking aspect of social media.

Yet B2B marketers still place Facebook as an important platform, because business decision makers are there, even if they aren’t in a traditional “buying mode.” The shift in online behavior to social networking represents an important change in how we search, discover, and then share information.

This article isn’t meant to convert your organization into becoming the next social media evangelist, but illustrate how and why it can become an essential part of the search engine marketing mix overall and to provide practical first steps to incorporating social networking into the B2B marketing strategy.

The Evolution of Search

Above all else, search engines (especially Google and Bing) realize the impact social signals have on how users will discover new content online. As more people connect to others, connect to their interests, and connect to companies playing well in social networks, it impacts how they will want to find new information.

Some powerful points of information to consider:

• Google’s +1 button is reportedly being served 2.3 billion times a day.
• Google+ exceeded 10 million users in two weeks. By comparison, it took Foursquare two years to surpass that milestone.
• Seventy-three percent of Americans with an Internet connection visit Facebook each month

Bottom-line: social networks represent a significant component of our online behavior, in the network and in relation to how we want to share information.

In addition, Facebook and Google are becoming intertwined in our everyday lives, Gmail, Group Collaboration, Events, etc. Google in particular has the existing connectivity to bring a larger audience into Google+ (and position the platform as a true player in social networking), regardless of whether they intended to be there purposefully.

But from the search perspective only, the individual’s social graph will have a greater impact on individual (and in turn aggregate) search engine results moving forward. The connection on why B2B companies invested in SEO need to look to social networks is that simple.

The New Link Building Strategy?

As indicated in a recent MarketingSherpa blog post, two important points from those surveyed in the 2012 SEO Benchmarking report include:

• Content creation is the most effective SEO tactic (see chart below).
• External link building is the most difficult SEO tactic to execute.

An effective social network provides the potential for “free” marketing research on what potential customers really want. “Listening” effectively to one’s social network is the first step to uncovering the type of content that will resonate with a target market and for which an SEO keyword strategy can be applied.

Social networking and social media make the distribution and ability to share and link to goodcontent that much easier. If the right networks are in place, sharing content becomes more effective, and others sharing (and linking) to good content becomes more likely as well.

Social Networking Steps for B2B Organizations

To get organizations involved in social networking, the following steps need to be considered.

1. Enlist Company Team Members

Having individual representatives supporting the overall organizational effort adds significant value to a social networking strategy. However, because social networking is largely a personal initiative, not every employee will feel comfortable sharing their social network across business lines.

The right team members must be willing to share and advocate the organization, which means their entire network (at least in places like Twitter and Facebook) will see these updates. It’s worth acknowledging that Google+ might make this more comfortable given the ability to broadcast messages to specific circles in one’s community.

2. Establish Complete Company Profiles

If nothing else, develop a completed company profile in applicable social networking communities. This means leveraging as many of the field of information and sections of the profile available.

Don’t forget to include images, video, and opportunities to integrate business specific initiatives. Examples of this include:

• Custom landing pages in Facebook (the Static iFrame App is a great resource for handling this) for specific Welcome Messages or product information.

• Custom background images/messaging for Twitter.

Even though specific business profile enhancements appear to be on the way later this year, B2B marketers should no doubt be exploring Google+ at the personal level, in consideration for ways to integrate business specific initiatives there as well.

3. Cross-Link and Draw Awareness

Once profiles are set, it’s imperative to place content and information in easily visible locations (in addition to traditional status updates). Examples of places to integrate new cross-links and information:

• Facebook “basic” information and website links, as well as callout information in the page icon and “about” section.

• Rotate and change the URL information in the company (and individual) Twitter bio.
• If you’re on Google Plus, add and consider rotating relevant links in your “Links” section and directly in the profile introduction.

Where to Go From Here

To truly unlock the value of social networking sites, quality participation is the key component. And even though there may be an urge to jump right and update, listening and evaluation should happen first, followed by a growing progression of communication strategies. Just like traditional relationships, there is a building process that happens over time.

What are your thoughts? Has your presence in social networking sites had a positive impact for your SEO strategy, in the form of content generation and link acquisition? I would love to read your thoughts and opinions via the comments below.

Save up to $500! Register now for SES San Francisco. In addition to high-level strategy, keynotes, an expo floor with 100+ companies, networking events, and parties, you don’t want to miss out on the latest trends and strategies during sessions on SEO, PPC management, social media, keyword research, local advertising, mobile engagement, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, online video, site optimization, usability, and more. Early bird rates expire July 22.

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