The famous American publication Consumer Reports, which deals with testing of new products launched on the market, found that 7.5 million users of nearly 600 million people who use the social network Facebook are under 13 years old.
According to the Consumer Reports study “State of the Net”, 20 millions children use Facebook, and 7.5 millions of them violate the terms and conditions of using it, because they are younger than the age of 13. Even worse, five million of them are under 10.
Facebook prohibits minors under the age of 13 to have a profile on the social networking site. These children may become victims of sexual predators or cybercriminals anytime. However, most parents interviewed are not worried that their children use Facebook.
Cybernetic threats are increasing, and social networks are just one source of malicious software infections. Out of the 2,000 households analyzed by Consumer Reports, one third had problems with software infections. These malicious programs made users pay $2.3 billion last year, more than 1.5 million PCs being replaced with new ones.