Facebook and Instagram change to crack down on underage kids – TechCrunch

Facebook and Instagram more proactively lock user accounts met by its moderators and suspect that they are under 13 years old. His former policy was to investigate only those accounts they were specifically reported as potentially minors. But Facebook has confirmed to TechCrunch that an "operational" change in its policy for reviewers makes this week lock the accounts of any minor user that they meet, even if they've been posted for something else. , as objectionable content, or are otherwise discovered by critics. Facebook will ask users to provide proof that they are over 13 years old, a photo ID issued by the government, to regain access. The problem is that Facebook does not require any proof of age when registering.

A harsher stance could reduce the number of users and advertising revenue from Facebook and Instagram. The previously more inventive approach of the applications has allowed them to attract younger users. By the time they reached the age of 13, they had already invested in building a social graph and story of the content that attaches them to the Facebook company. While Facebook has wasted time with young people over time and their parents have joined, Instagram is still very popular with them and probably has many tweens or even younger kids as kids. users

. UK Channel 4 and Firecrest Films who watched a journalist become a Facebook content reviewer through a third-party company called CPL Resources in Dublin, Ireland. One critic says that they have been asked to ignore users under the age of 13, saying, "We have to admit that the person is underage. Otherwise, we simply want to pretend that we are blind and that we do not know what a miner looks like. The report also pointed out that right-wing political groups are subject to different removal thresholds as other pages or accounts publish hate speech. content in violation of Facebook's policy.

In response, Facebook published an article on July 16 claiming that high-profile pages and registered political groups may receive a second layer of review from Facebook's employees. But in a July 17 update, Facebook noted that "since the program, we are working to update the tips for reviewers to put on hold on any account that they encounter if they have a strong indication that it is minor, even if the report was for something else. "

Now a Facebook spokesperson confirms to TechCrunch that it's a change in the way reviewers are trained to apply their age policy for Facebook and Instagram. This does not mean that Facebook will start a large sweep of its hunting site for underage users, but it will stop ignoring those that it encounters. The Facebook spokesman pointed out that the service conditions that prevent minors from using the services remain the same, but the operational guidelines given to moderators have changed.

Facebook prohibits children under 13 years of age to comply with which requires parental consent to collect data on children. The change could see more minor users have their accounts completed. This could in turn reduce the usefulness of the site for their friends of more or less 13 years, making them less engaged in the social network.

The news is against Facebook who deliberately seeks to attract minors. The Kids Messenger app that allows children ages 6 to 12 to chat with those approved by their parents, which is expanding beyond the United States to Mexico, Canada and Canada today. Peru. On the one hand, Facebook is trying to make users under the age of 13 dependent on the social network … while pushing them away with each other.

Children's Registration Leads to Problems with the Age of Users

A high-ranking source who worked at Facebook In the early days, he'd already told me that the One of the consequences of a non-interventionist approach to monitoring underage users was that as some were getting older, Facebook mistakenly believed that they were over 18 or over 21.

This is problematic because making minors ineligible to see advertisements for alcohol, real money gambling, loans or subscription services. They might also see potentially offensive content such as graphic violence that appears only to users over the age of 18 and who is hidden behind a warning interstitial. Facebook can also expose his contact information, his school and his birthday in public search results, which he hides under 18 years old.

Users who request to change their date of birth may have their accounts suspended, deterring users from revealing their actual age. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that in the United States, Canada and Europe, if a user over the age of 18 was trying to change age to be under 18 or vice versa otherwise, they would be asked to provide proof of age. offer an amnesty period to users who want to correct their age without having their accounts suspended. Getting friends to confirm friend requests and creating a profile takes time and social capital that minor users who are now over 13 years old do not want to risk just to display their exact birth date and protect Facebook. If the company wants to correct the problem, it may be necessary to offer a temporary method without consequence to users to correct their age. It could then promote this option to its younger users or those that the algorithms suggest could be less than 13 depending on their connections.

Facebook does not put a real roadblock to register in front of minors. are in age, likely to keep it easy to join the social network and develop its business. It is understandable that some 9 or 11 year old children lie to gain access. Blinding self-certifications led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as the data research firm promised Facebook that it had surreptitiously deleted user data, but Facebook could not verify that.

There are many other applications to flout the laws of COPPA by facilitating the registration of underage children. The Musical.ly Lip Sync App is especially renowned for featuring girls under the age of 13 who are provocatively dancing on modern pop songs in front of audiences of millions – which includes worrying adults . The CEO of the company, Alex Zhu, denied violating the COPPA when I confronted him at TechCrunch Disrupt London in 2016.

The Facebook account

L & # 39; thorough examination of the Cambridge Analytica debacle the screen addiction, lack of protection against false news and lax policy towards conspiracy theorists and dangerous content triggered an account for Facebook

Yesterday, Facebook has announced an update of the content moderation policy. have contributed to physical damage and we are making a policy change that will allow us to reduce this type of content. We will begin to implement the policy in the coming months. "This comes in response to false rumors that are spreading through WhatsApp leading to lynchings murdering people in countries like India.The policy could have an impact on conspiracy theorists and publications spreading fake news on Facebook, some of which claim to practice freedom of expression.

For security, privacy and truth, Facebook will have to pave the way to monitor its social network. It remains to try to balance its mission to connect the world, his business that maximizes the number of users and commitment, his brand as a family company, his responsibility to protect society and democracy from misinformation and his values ​​that voice for everything the world … Something must give.