Facebook Wants to Open Its Doors to Preteens

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With more than 900 million members, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) could be running out of room for growth. Worse, it looks like China will probably continue to prevent the social network from entering the country.

So, what’s Facebook to do?

Well, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, it looks like Facebook is thinking of allowing children younger than 13 to join.

One thing to consider is that millions of kids already are getting onto the service anyway simply by lying about their ages.

However, getting legitimate adds creates a big problem for Facebook, as federal regulations have many restrictions on collecting personal data on children. So the best approach would be to control the experience.

To this end, one of the possibilities Facebook is testing is connecting a child’s profile to a parent’s profile. The parent also would be required to approve friends or to download apps.

If successful, the move could be lucrative. One of the fastest-growing gaming segments is apps for children, and Facebook already hosts a legion of games by companies like Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA), which cut FB in on their revenues.

— Tom Taulli, InvestorPlace


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2012/06/facebook-wants-to-open-its-doors-to-preteens/.

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