By Age 14, 78 Percent Of US Kids Have A Facebook Account

Source: The WSJ "Facebook Explores Giving Kids Access"

From The Wall Street Journal blog Digits, "Kids Find a Way to Facebook" by Shayndi Raice:

Facebook currently won’t let users under the age of 13 set up accounts. Last June, however, Consumer Reports released a study that found that of the 20 million children signed up for Facebook, a whopping 7.5 million were under the age of 13. Of those illegitimately using the site, five million children were under the age of 10.

Then in the fall, researcher Danah Boyd released a study sponsored by Microsoft Research that found 36% of parents were aware that their children joined Facebook before age 13 and that a substantial percentage of those parents helped their kids lie about their age in order to sign up.