Kids skirting Facebook age-limit rules to sign up

Millions of children are creating Facebook profiles against the social network’s guidelines that restrict anyone under 13 from signing up, often with their parents’ help, a study has revealed.

Millions of children are creating Facebook profiles against the social network's guidelines that restrict anyone under 13 from signing up, often with their parents' help, a study has revealed.

A New York University survey, covering 1,007 parents across the United States, found that 55 percent of parents of 12-year-olds said that their child has a Facebook account.

Seventy-six percent of those parents reported helping their kids' create the account, The New York Daily News reports.

The survey also revealed that a third of the parents of 11-year-olds and 19 percent of the parents of 10-year-olds reported their child has an account.

A 48-year-old man said he has no problem with his 12-year-old son using Facebook, and added that the site's age rule is an exercise in futility.

"It's unenforceable. It's like having a big bowl of candy and not letting them have any," The Internet is everywhere around us. You can't get away from it. You just have to have a long conversation about the rules," the man said.