How to Close Down a Kid's Facebook Account

Kids under 13 aren't allowed to have Facebook accounts, but many lie about their age.

According to the rules of Facebook, people under the age of 13 aren't allowed to have their own Facebook accounts. If you have a child under that age who has an account and you want to shut it down, there's a process within Facebook for reporting the page, and Facebook is known for shutting those pages down. If your child is over the age of 13 however, it's much more difficult to accomplish this task.

Instructions

1. Navigate to facebook.com. Click "Help" on the bottom right side of the page. Type "Report a child" into the search box that appears. Hit "Enter." This takes you to a description of reporting a child; click the link within the description to get to the "Report an Underage Child" form.

2. Complete the various boxes of the form, including your email address, the name of the person you're reporting, his real age, and the email address listed for the profile.

3. Click "Submit." Facebook will then review the page and attempt to verify the child's age to determine whether to shut down the page. You won't receive any follow-up information about the status of the profile.

4. Wait a few days and see if the profile is still in existence on Facebook. Be patient; Facebook deals with many reports of abuse, and it may take some time to deal with your request.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're the parent of the Facebook user, you'll have much more credibility to report a child's actual age. If you're not, get the child's parent to report the problem to Facebook. To check whether a profile still exists after you report it, you need your own Facebook profile. If you know the child's email address and login password, you can log in to the account, click "Account," and click "Account Settings" and "Deactivate Account."

References

• The Tech Herald: Nearly 40-Percent of Facebook's Minors Are Below Age Requirements; Steve Ragan; May 2011

Resources

• Facebook: Report an Underage Child