Reps Barton, Markey: Facebook avoiding details on children joining social site

Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX) on said Facebook did not respond to their questions in a recent letter about how the company would manage its social networking website if children were allowed to join.

The two lawmakers fired off a letter to Facebook last month after it was reported that the social networking site was considering plans to allow children to register to use it. The letter included a series of questions about how Facebook intends to protect young users’ information. While Facebook described how it complied with existing online child privacy legislation in its response, the two privacy hawks said it skirted questions about what type of information it would collect from young users and whether it would serve up advertisements targeted toward them. In a letter sent to the two lawmakers last month, Facebook said the company hasn’t made a final decision about whether it would permit children under 13 to join the site but would discuss its plans with the lawmakers if that changed.