ju, you're right that Bebo has a minimum age of 13 (see its Terms), but it's well known that, starting at the middle school level, interest in social networking and blogging, as well as IM-ing, really takes off, and a lot of "underage" people sign up for accounts, saying they're older to avoid being deleted.

Some social sites employ pretty sophisticated technology to detect underage blogs and profiles, but no research has been done about how many do. I don't know if Bebo has that technology or not, but I do know they are responsible about deleting underage accounts when they're notified about them. The challenge is being able to tell if people are being truthful - both the people who establish accounts and the people reporting them. I'm in no way suggesting you're not being truthful; what I am saying is that it's no easier for Customer Service Departments to tell if the person sending an underage report is telling the truth than it is to tell if the page owner is. A lot of people don't think about that side of the issue. Gosh, that was a long answer! I hope it was helpful. Anyway, as Maureen says, feel free to send admin@blogsafety.com the page's URL. All best,
Anne
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Anne Collier
BlogSafety co-director

Please send the page URL to admin@blogsafety.com and we will pass your message along to our contact at Bebo.

Thanks,

Maureen
BlogSafety forum manager