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And the age of consent is ..
18
"Facebook has insisted that all participants below the age of 18 submitted parental consent forms, but it would be impossible for Facebook to remotely verify that the teens just didn’t fill them out themselves without extra steps."
And then there's a reporter in the article saying he attempted to sign up with a birth year of 2005 and was required to do precisely nothing about parental consent.
16 is the lowest age of legally binding contractual obligation and criminal prosecution as an adult, with some exceptions for particularly egregious or exceptional situations.
Absolutely disgusting, they're likely too young to sign the contract or understand what they're signing - let alone the impact of what Facebook is doing with their data (or potentially to them directly). It's incredibly disturbing, predatory behaviour.
Shameful that Sheryl Sandberg would even try to rationalize this.
Hard to say whether she actually believes in this practice or is forced to say it due to her position in the company.
Oh imagine the struggle of a poor billionaire such as Sheryl.

But seriously, I’m surprised at the mental gymnastics. If she had a problem with any of it, she could just quit.

You know people need money for food and shelter, and sometimes to survive and feed your family you need to make tough choices /s
I think it is too convenient to differentiate between work and personal views when the view is unpopular but not draw that distinction when the view is popular.
I’m just a working stiff and I’ve refused to do things for my employer that I found unethical. Sandberg is a billionaire who never need worry about anything, ever, not her children or children’s children. What does it take for someone like her not to support obviously shameful behavior?
Yep, once you start leanin' in you just can't stop.

In all seriousness, I do wonder how these billionaires can resist just riding off into the sunset. Have some damn dignity.

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She's still responsible for what she says and does.
The fact that you believe that its shameful for a particular business leader to espouse malpractices is a testament as to why PR agencies who manage perception of individuals as well as institutions charge such hefty money.
It's bad if you can't tell by the headline if you're reading a treatise by Mises about child markets or whether you're reading a Facebook PR response
“When Boorstin asked whether Facebook regretted not pulling the app before Apple had revoked its certificates, Sandberg replied by saying Facebook had done so as soon as it realized it was not “in compliance.”

Love the amount of ____ she says.

This is one thing that also bothers me with Whatsapp.

You have to be 13 / 16 to use it. But its just a checkbox. I know children that use the service who are below this barrier. But to report them to Whatsapp you have to be holder of the parental responsibility over the child and you have to prove it.

This should be the other way round.

I'll take 'things a rapist would say' for $1000 Alex.