Aussie Legislation for 'parental guidance' on Facebook pushed
Dennis Hood, a South Australian Family First MP, is drafting a bill that would force Facebook, the most popular social network site in Australia and the rest of the world, to give parents a bigger say in activities of their children over the Internet.
As widely reported, Hood wants legislation that would give parents more control over information their children post on the site. "I believe that Facebook needs to amend its policy regarding parental controls and legislation needs to be amended to allow parents to properly monitor their children's online activities," Hood said on Thursday.
Hood's move was prompted by concerns from a mother who raised issues with Facebook over material posted by her 13-year-old child. The site, as a matter of policy, declined to discuss the issue with the mother and said they would only speak to the minor as the holder of the online account.
"I have raised this issue in parliament and with the media because I believe it is important that parents have all the necessary tools to protect their kids online and this policy doesn't help," Hood said.
The news comes as Facebook has hit 687 million users worldwide at the start of June. CheckFacebook.com says that Australia currently has 10,368,720 Facebook users, comprising 1.52% of the global audience. Inside Facebook said last month that Australia has 10.0 million Facebook users at the start of May, up 8.0% from 12 months before. With a population of more than 22.6 million, Australia is the 17th country with most users of the social network site, according to Inside Facebook's tally last month. Facebook is the country's most popular social networking site, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn, respectively.
An American consumer advocacy publication said last month that Facebook has 7.5 million users who are underage and are not supposed to be using the social networking site. Of the 20 million minors who actively used Facebook in the past year, 7.5 million of them were younger than 13, according to projections from Consumer Reports' latest State of the Net survey.
Facebook's terms of service require users to be at least 13 years old. However, a pre-teenager can join the social networking site by entering a false birth date. Joining Facebook does not require a credit card or a stringent verification process. Facebook only deletes the accounts of underage users if there are reports from other users.