Facebook Users Lax on Privacy, Protecting Children Online

10.05.2011
Facebook users still do not use privacy controls to protect themselves, and a third of children under 18 are below the site's minimum age of 13, Consumer Reports reported in its June issue.

About 9.5 million Facebook users in the United States still do not use any type of privacy controls on the site, about one out of every five active users in the country, according to the "." The data is surprising, considering to make some changes last year to .

Facebook's problem may be that some users don't realize that they can control what they share. Consumer Reports found that two-thirds of these users not using the privacy controls didn't even know they existed.

"The fact that so many other Facebook users are still in the dark about the controls is troubling," Consumer Reports technology editor Jeffrey Fox . "These findings suggest that Facebook needs to further step up its efforts to inform users about the controls and make it easier to access them."

Privacy education isn't the only thing Facebook should be worrying about. Researchers found that about 7.5 million users were under the age of 13, the minimum age to use the site.