Facebook Targets Children 13-and-Under: C'mon, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Taking a company public presents opportunities and burdens.

Your employees and investors get to monetize or cash out to the tune of millions and billions. Even if at a somewhat lower multiple than hoped. But once a company is owned publicly, pesky shareholders and analysts develop unreasonable expectations and start to ask annoying questions. Which is really a distraction when all you are trying to do is be awesome every single day.

One of the perennial market analyst concerns is growth. Because future growth provides the future revenues that support the stock price. And this is a particular concern for Facebook as some of the froth that drooped post-IPO was based on unanswered questions about how one turns awesomeness and lots of friends into revenue and profit.

The stock is down about 20% since the big day. Which is not unusual for a newly public company, but not what Facebook, its followers or the market expected. Facebook is on the case and working to target new markets. The latest idea is to invite children under 13 to join. Imagine all the stuff they would love to buy. And with mommy and daddy's permission.

Which is not an unreasonable notion - if you are 20-something, unmarried and without children of your own. This concept has been greeted with a response squarely positioned somewhere between unenthusiastic and skeptical. There are some apocalyptic disaster-warning outliers, but what do they know? However, the serious financial and managerial questions this raises are that the putative child-centric concept has done nothing to assuage investor concerns, while confirming worries that adult supervision in the company's managerial ranks is still notably thin.

Facebook has created a phenomenal network. Doing so took vision, skill and management. But converting that promise into steady, unspectacular, profitable growth has daunted even more obviously well-run businesses.

This may take a while. And what emerges may look a lot different. Believers will need to be patient - and open-minded. JL

Daniel Bates reports in the Daily Mail:

Facebook is planning to let children under the age of 13 sign up for the first time, despite privacy concerns and parents’ worries.

The social network wants to introduce parental controls so youngsters can join when they are old enough to work a mouse. One option being considered is a filter so parents can decide who children can ‘friend’ and which applications they can use.
The move comes after Facebook floated on the stock exchange in the U.S. meaning it has to come up with new ways of making money to satisfy shareholders. But any changes are likely to face fierce opposition as it has a highly questionable record on issues like Internet bullying.

Facebook rules state that anybody under 13 cannot use the website but there is nothing stopping a young child from lying when asked to enter their date of birth.
There are no other checks in place when a user signs up and as a result one in five 10-year-olds is on Facebook, as is 55 per cent of 12-year-olds.

According to the Wall St Journal the company is not working on a 'Facebook for kids' but instead is looking to sign up ever younger users to the existing version.
By reeling in young children it will allow Facebook to charge parents for games their children sign up for. To this end Facebook has begun negotiations with identity-verification providers about how to get verifiable consent from parents to let their children use the website.

Facebook's move comes after it's disastrous stock market floatation last month which has seen its stock slump by more than 20 per cent since the launch. Now it is a public company it will have to constantly come up with ways to maintain the 88 per cent revenue growth it achieved last year from its 900million users.
Christina Warren of technology website Mashable.com said: 'Facebook wants users to be on the site as young as possible so as they get older they can become better advertising targets and better customers for their other services.'

In the UK campaigners have long attacked Facebook for its disregard for the privacy of its users. Claire Perry, Conservative MP for Devizes, who has spoken out on online safety, has branded the idea of Facebook for under-13s 'very irresponsible'.

Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: 'It's very hard to see how this is going to be a positive step for privacy.

'The long term risk is that Facebook will hold a staggering amount of data about us from cradle to grave and we will have to trust a company with a dubious track record of respecting privacy to respect our wishes on what happens to that data.'
John Carr, spokesman for the Family Online Safety Institute, said he was 'skeptical' about the announcement. He said: 'What Facebook could do is embrace age verification to ensure that under-13s do not get on the site, as its own rules state.

'Facebook has always made clear that their site is not suitable for the under 13s, in terms of the content and advertising.

'If they are now proposing that then it implies major changes in its site'.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg caused a storm last year when he said he thought that Facebook would be good for the under-13s, although he knew it would be a 'fight' to convince people he was right.

A Facebook spokesman admitted that it was proving difficult to enforce the age restrictions. She said: 'We are in continuous dialogue with stakeholders, regulators and other policymakers about how best to help parents keep their kids safe in an evolving online environment.'