NI: Father sues Facebook for failure to enforce age restrictions
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Facebook has settled out of court after a father in Northern Ireland took the social media giant to court for failing to enforce its age restrictions, enabling a man to contact his daughter, then 11, and exchange photos with her “of a sexual nature”.
The girl set up numerous accounts to contact men and exchanged the inappropriate photos with one who is restrained from contacting her.
According to the BBC the girl began posting suggestive images of herself on the site when she was 12 and included information on her residence and school.
Facebook deactivated the accounts but her father’s lawyers say the company should have done more to prevent her from making new ones because she was under 13.
They said Facebook’s registration system was too relaxed, making it easy to make new accounts.
In court documents they said: “Facebook is negligent in that it failed to have a proper system in place a child to misrepresent her age.”
They added the company is “obviously aware” that children are misrepresenting their age in order to open accounts and that a girl of 11 cannot consent to “throw away her privacy rights” under the Data Protection Act 1998.
Facebook and the family reached a settlement before the trial in the High Court in Belfast.
Facebook removes 20,000 underage users every day.”
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