Facebook removes 20000 profiles a day

BANGALORE, INDIA: You are not supposed to drink if you are below 18 years. You are not supposed to use Facebook if you are below 13 years. But who cares? Laws are broken day in and day out.

However, social networking major Facebook says it is very strict about its privacy policy and it is making all efforts to make sure that the social networking platform is  not a play field for young kids and the predators who set their eyes on them.

As part of of its efforts to boost cyber security, Facebook deletes over 20,000 profiles a day including spam, inappropriate content and underage use. The number does “not include the proactive efforts that actually prevent fake or under age accounts from being created”.

Facebook’s chief privacy advisor Mozelle Thompson told this to an Australian Senate cyber-safety committee on Monday during a hearing on the steps taken to address the network's growing problem of underage users. Representatives from Microsoft and Yahoo were also on the panel.

“There are people who lie. There are people who are under 13 ,” said Thompson.

No technology to restrict underage users

Though there is no technology available to restrict underage users it is going along with Australia’s cyber-safety committee to prevent underage users thus saving them from the predators on social media who are in search of under-age preys.

"At Facebook, we take safety very seriously and we were pleased to participate in a hearing in Australia to talk about our safety policies, practices and systems," the company said in a statement.

U.S senator Al Franken had written a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month asking the social networking site to overhaul its security settings in regards to collecting personal data.

In the letter Franken said that 13 million users are under 18 years and may share their personal information, such as adult users.

He said users of this young age are vulnerable to criminals who use the Internet for their vested interest.

Updates Facebook Questions

Meanwhile, Facebook also announced some notable updates to its Q&A product, Facebook Questions.

The new Facebook Questions facilitates short, poll-like answers in addition to long-form responses, and also links directly to relevant items in Facebook's directory of “fan pages”.

However, the new Facebook Questions will be available as a limited beta first and it is restricted to Facebook members who have set their default language to English.