Make under-13 not allowed clear, court tells Facebook

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked social networking site Facebook to upload a disclaimer on its home page that children below the age of 13 years cannot open an account on it.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru asked Facebook to not allow children under 13 years from opening an account.

Senior advocate Parag Tripathi appearing for Facebook assured the court that the site “will upload the disclaimer on its home page that children 13 years can not open the account”.

“You (Facebook) can write on the home page in bold letters that children below 13 are not allowed. There is no harm in doing this…,” the court said.

The court also asked the central government to tell it as to what law it had for the online protection of children from being abused throught the social networking sites.

The judges also asked the government to inform them on provisions in the law related to a minor using a social networking site.

“In India what is the law for a minor to use Facebook? Is it 13, 16, 18 or no law? What is the requirement under Indian law for Facebook?,” the court asked from the central government’s counsel who in turn told it that in US the age to use social networking sites is 13 years….

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