Facebook Booting "20,000" Underage Users Per Day: Reaction to Growing Privacy Concerns?

According to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nearly half of all 12-year-olds in the US are using social network sites, despite not meeting the minimum age requirements for sites like Facebook. And such popularity only balloons once the teens grow older: roughly 64% of 13-year-olds are social networking; between the ages of 14 to 17, that figure jumps to 82%, says Pew. But that doesn't mean Facebook isn't trying to stop kids from becoming addicted to the network at such a young age (though indoctrination does have its benefits!).

According to a report by the Daily Telegraph today, Facebook is kicking out roughly 20,000 underage users per day. In a meeting with Australia's cyber-safety committee, Facebook's chief privacy adviser Mozelle Thompson agreed that underage users were taking advantage of the site. After all, any user no matter his or her age can register for the site by simply lying when signing up--Facebook has no mechanisms to detect whether a teen is telling the truth or not. "It's not perfect," said Thompson. However, Facebook's privacy czar did argue that Facebook is trying to stop these young'ins from continuing to use the site. "There are people who lie. There are people who are under 13 [accessing Facebook]," Thompson said. "Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage."