Bobby Caina Calvan reports:
Facebook rode more than enthusiasm to its $100 billion stock offering Friday, children’s advocates say. A crucial propellent was investors’ belief that lawmakers will not ban such social networks from selling troves of excruciatingly private details from the lives of teenagers.
For months, legislative attempts to expand and refine a children’s online protection law have moved at the speed of a dial-up connection. The law — itself a teenager, passed before the advent of Facebook, app-enhanced smartphones, and the vast apparatus of data-collection technologies — demands that firms obtain parental consent before tracking the information and the online movements of children. But it only applies to those ages 12 and under.
Now with data trollers creating huge libraries of digital profiles and teenagers often oblivious to the consequences of sharing their lives online, privacy advocates contend the need to broaden the law is urgent.
Read more on Boston Globe. And imagine the new flurry if Facebook tries to let the under-13 crowd join…