Facebook has 7.5 million rule-breaking underage users (BLOG)

Facebook has a minimum age limit requiring users to be at least 13 years of age, but you'd never know it by the sheer number of extreme...

Facebook has a minimum age limit requiring users to be at least 13 years of age, but you'd never know it by the sheer number of extremely young social network participants. Underage users are such a common occurrence that there's a good chance you yourself have a son, daughter, brother, sister, or cousin who is breaking the most basic Facebook rule. A new survey by Consumer Reports puts the total number of underage Facebook users at a staggering 7.5 million.

That figure might not be mind-blowing when you take into account the social hub's overall subscriber number of over 500 million, but it's a sizable chunk, and enough of a problem that 20,000 rule-breaking youngsters are hit with bans every day. Facebook enforces the age limit to the best of its ability, as it feels children under the age of 13 simply aren't equipped with the mental faculties to make consistently responsible decisions on the network.

As Facebook has moved out of college campuses and into the lives of nearly every one of us, it's no surprise that younger, more tech-savvy kids also want to get in on the action. Consumer Reports advises that parents keep a keen eye on their youngster's social network accounts when possible, and we'd add that making sure personal information is kept to a minimum is also a key safety measure.