*Written by MIGUEL ÁNGEL MENDOZA for welivesecurity.com*
Although any user can fall victim to any network threat, regardless of their age, children and teenagers are especially susceptible to dangers that threaten to take advantage of their innocence. Needless to say, the protection of youngsters on the internet is a real challenge.
At WeLiveSecurity, we have dealt with some of the main threats affecting chidlren and young people who use new technologies – mainly around the internet – such as grooming and cyberbullying.
Despite a number of initiatives aimed at counteracting these type of threats/risks, we still have a long way to go before we will get to a safe digital environment.
The minimum age necessary to use internet services
One of the most important aspects we have to consider when it comes to safety is determining the right age (and the required age) for children to be able to start using all the various online services – such as social networks – especially seeing as some of the most popular tools were not developed with child users in mind (many require children to be at least 13 before they can sign up).
Other services, such as email, also prohibit children under the age of 13 from creating an account.
However, in both cases we see that no mechanisms have been put in place to enable the user’s age to be verified, given that any date of birth can be used to fulfill the requirements. Additionally, the checks used can be easily sidestepped.
The main reason why children under 13 are not allowed to have an email address or a social network profile is the law protecting child privacy, commonly known as COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), which companies have to comply with.
Source - WeLiveSecurity.Com