7.5 million Facebook users underage: study

According to the survey findings, parent supervision of online activity were absent in case of the children below the age of 10.

The survey even observed that about one million children have faced harassement, threats, or were subjected to cyber-bullying on the site during the past year.

In a blog post, Consumer Reports technology editor Jeffrey Fox wrote, "The fact that so many other Facebook users are still in the dark about the controls is troubling."

"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."

False birth date
Despite Facebook’s terms and conditions and screening process it is easy for pre-teens to lie about their age and open an account as they are not required to validate their age by providing a credit card, stated the findings.

Fox stated, "Despite Facebook’s age requirements, many kids are using the site who shouldn't be."

"What's even more troubling was the finding from our survey that indicated that a majority of parents of kids aged 10 and under, seemed largely unconcerned by their children's use of the site."

Ascertaining age of users is a difficult task, says Facebook

In an official statement about the report Facebook stated, "Recent reports have highlighted just how difficult it is to implement age restrictions on the Internet and that there is no single solution to ensuring younger children don’t circumvent a system or lie about their age."

"We appreciate the attention that these reports and other experts are giving to this matter and believe this will provide an opportunity for parents, teachers, safety advocates and Internet services to focus on this area, with the ultimate goal of keeping young people of all ages safe online.”

Add your child to friends list

Suggestions to parents by the Consumer Report findings included deleting the account or adding their child in friend list as the best way to monitor their activity on social sites.

Noting that Facebook privacy controls are hard to find, the report recommends Facebook for improving their screening procedure to reduce the underage users and provide an easily accessible location for privacy controls for users.