Hyderabad: Social media platforms are seriously looking out for underage users to stop them from using them till the children become eligible. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram require users to be over 13 to hold an account. Most parents allow children to respond to peer pressure and allow kids to sign up at the age of nine or ten.
Previously the policy was to only investigate underage accounts if they were reported. But now the tech giant Facebook is having a serious look at such accounts even if they were reported for some other issue such as objectionable content, or are discovered by reviewers. While Facebook lost its appeal with teens because their parents joined the platform, Instagram is extremely popular with them.
Twitter took a step ahead and unknowingly banned users who are now adults but signed up for it when they were underage. When they made product changes to meet privacy demands, they realised that a lot of underage users signed up. “Our rules don’t allow anyone under 13 to Tweet or create a Twitter account so we’re working on a technical solution to delete those Tweets, and allow the impacted account holders to continue on Twitter,” the social media giant said.
Cyber security experts said that parents should keep an eye on child's social media accounts especially Instagram and make use of parental controls being given by the platforms .
Ms Anindita Mishra, Cybermum of Mcafee said, “The ideal age on all social media platforms is mentioned, but unfortunately nobody takes the time to read the terms and conditions. It is usually 13 and above. They have determined that at that age a child can start handling these under parental guidance. Even at the age of 13 and beyond we advice parents to sit down with the child and help him/her create the profile. And ensure that privacy is kept at the maximum and not much detail is shared publicly.”
