A teacher in a primary school that I work with has become aware that lots of the children in her school have started to use Facebook in clear breach of the terms of service of that website (Users must be at least 13 years of age). She has no evidence at this stage that they have used the site for any nefarious purpose but contacted Facebook to ask what their policy was about this sort of thing. Facebook responded that in order to investigate an account they need the following information:
- The exact name listed on the account
- The child's real date of birth (month/day/year)
- Any networks associated with the account
- A link (URL) to the account's profile page or search listing
- A list of any email addresses that may have been used to register the account
- A description of the profile picture
A school is not at liberty to disclose such personal data as dates of birth, and will probably have no idea about email addresses. She obviously has a pastoral concern for the children in question, but should she be taking the matter up with parents, rather than Facebook, or indeed should she be taking it up at all?