Australia mulls Facebook 18+

Australia said it was considering upping the restrictions placed on Facebook, giving parents access to their children’s pages and requiring proof of age at sign-up.

The social networking site has 10 million Australian users – almost half the population – and requires people to state at sign-up that they are at least 13, but there is currently no way to formally enforce the age limit.

Attorney-General Robert Mc-Clelland said some parents had complained the age limit was too young and that content “being put up by their own children” could be “prejudicial to their future career prospects”.

A number of proposals were being considered by lawmakers, he said, including mandating a sign-up age of 18 years for Australian users and giving parents the over-riding ability to access their children’s Facebook pages.

“We most certainly could regulate any Australian entity so that we can specify that the age of consent was 18,” he remarked.