Bluesky CEO Incorrectly States Platform’s Age Limit

The chief executive of the social media network Bluesky, which has recently experienced a significant surge in popularity, was unable to provide the correct age requirement for users on the platform during an interview with the BBC. While appearing on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast programme, Jay Graber mistakenly stated that individuals needed to be 18 years old to use Bluesky, when the actual minimum age is 13. The question of whether young individuals should have access to social media platforms is a widely discussed topic globally, with Australia proposing a prohibition for those under 16 and the UK indicating that similar measures are “on the table.” Millions of users have registered for the application since the US election results were announced, some doing so in protest of the role X, formerly Twitter, played in contributing to Donald Trump’s victory. Ms. Graber attributed this rapid expansion to the “really great” experience users were having on Bluesky. She remarked, “There’s not harassment and bots and spam and a lot of the other problems that plague other platforms.” Regarding age verification, Ms. Graber informed the BBC that Bluesky employs “age-gating” during the sign-up process by requesting users to enter their date of birth. When directly asked about Bluesky’s age limit, Ms. Graber responded: “When you sign up – I’ll have to check – I think it’s like 18 and above.” Following the interview, Bluesky contacted the BBC to clarify that the minimum age is 13, not 18. A spokesperson stated: “Child safety is extremely important for Bluesky. “You must be at least 13 years old to sign up for an account, and anyone under 18 using Bluesky has additional settings applied to ensure that the content they see is safe for minors.” In an extensive interview with presenter Rick Edwards, she mentioned that Bluesky does not attempt to verify user identification to ensure people are not providing false information when signing up. She commented: “We don’t take IDs or anything like that. I know that’s proposed in some places. That’s very private information. “I think companies like us would want to make sure we’re handling that private user data very responsibly.” Ms. Graber also indicated that moderation on the platform is managed through a combination of human moderators and automated technology, and there are no current plans to introduce “traditional advertising.” She suggested that one potential revenue stream being explored was generating income through subscriptions for users who desire additional features for their accounts. Bluesky was developed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and visually resembles X during its earlier period as Twitter. Mr. Dorsey is no longer involved with the team behind the platform, having resigned from the board in May of the previous year. The platform has recently experienced a significant increase in sign-ups following the outcomes of the US election. Elon Musk, the owner of X, was a prominent supporter of Donald Trump throughout his campaign. He is also expected to play a substantial role in the President’s administration after being appointed co-head of the new administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. Political polarization has led some individuals to leave X in protest since the election, and Bluesky appears to have benefited from this trend. In September, the company reported nine million users. This week, its user base surpassed 20 million. However, this figure remains considerably lower than that of X, as well as Threads, a competing platform established by Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer announced this week that he has “no plans” to join the social media platform. The Prime Minister informed reporters that “at the moment” there are no initiatives to establish official UK government accounts or a personal one in his name. He emphasized that it is “important for a government” to be able to communicate with “as many people as possible.” X does not disclose its total user numbers, but it is widely understood that these figures are in the hundreds of millions. Mr. Musk himself has 205 million followers on his account.