12 Year Olds on Facebook?

While browsing Twitter this morning, I came across a tweet sent out by social media researcher danah boyd regarding parents’ choices to “help tweens violate Facebook’s 13+ rule.”  

Why Parents Help Tweens Violate Facebook’s 13+ Rule. 

In the article boyd talks about 12 year old kids, (and even younger), that choose to join Facebook. She describes how and why parents help these kids create their accounts even though the site asks that its users be 13 years of age. She also gets into the technicalities of privacy and rights online, including issues dealing with COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

What I was wondering when I saw this, though, was why on earth would a 12 year old need a Facebook? Or a 10 year old for that matter. Is it really that necessary that they get a Facebook account? I never really thought that kids/tweens that young actually created Facebook accounts, but I guess as the years go on more and more kids are becoming tech savvy and more deeply involved in the internet, so it would make sense. To me, however, it is still strange to think of a 10 or 12 year old using Facebook…