Five million Facebook users are under age 11, how many play games?

Consumer Reports estimates that 5 million Facebook users are under 11, but how many of them are Facebook gamers? The news comes from the magazine's June issue, and echoes a Liberty Mutual study that reports 7.5 million of those on the social network are below the required minimum age of 13 years old. This means that either parents are making profiles for their kids or the little ones are going rogue, making their own profiles.

Facebook has age limits for a reason: it's the law. And while one third of parents claim to monitor their kids' activity on Facebook, 17 percent of them have no qualms with their kids using the service underage. In fact, All Facebook reports that many respondents seemed to have no problem with the fact that their kids might have posted fake registration information in order to get in.

And Facebook is working against them, banning an estimated 20 thousands daily that it suspects are underage. That amounts to about 7.3 million Facebook minors a year. As a gamer, one can't help but wonder how many of these 7.5 million kids are toiling away in FarmVille. As Capcom and Smurfs Village displayed effectively, kids and virtual goods can be a deadly combination. Not to mention that this could shift the average Facebook gamer demographic considerably. The horror!

[Image Credit: Fooyoh]

Do you allow your preteens to play around on Facebook, or are you a minor Facebooker yourself? What are your thoughts on kids playing Facebook games, and if your kids are on Facebook, how do you monitor their activity/purchases? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.