terms-of-service
Before I was 13 I had a facebook account. Could I be arrested?
<p>The same as the title.
If I was underage (broke the ToS), could I be arrested?</p>

<p>There are no laws that govern the creation of online accounts. If any site's rules require that users be of a certain age, the only penalty for breaking those rules is denial of an account, and this penalty can only be applied by the owner of the site. No laws are involved.</p>

<p>Generally, the age of 13 is seen as one of the earliest points one can be at all in the legal capacity to agree to any contracts. Without this capacity, no contract can be formed at all. As a result, any contract with any one of age 12 and below is void <em>ab initio</em> (from the beginning). Between the 13th and 18th birthdays, the capacity to form contracts is usually presumed to exist, but not be fully fledged. Depending on the country/state (the term used in legal-speak is <em>jurisdiction</em>) one lives in, that can mean that contracts have value limits or that certain clauses are not valid. <sup>1</sup></p>
<p>The terms of service are part of the contract with Facebook. By lying about the age, one breaks the contract. The remedy for a broken contract is also in the Terms of Service, and in Facebook's case, that is the removal of the breaking party from the service and possibly a ban. While that might sound harsh, the only legal thing that can arise is a purely <em>civil lawsuit</em> to try and enforce the contract - civil lawsuit means between two private parties.</p>
<p>To arrest somebody is a thing from <em>criminal law</em>. The police need to either have an arrest warrant or special circumstances (such as they witnessed a crime themselves). To acquire a warrant, it is required that the police (or FBI) show a judge why they believe that the arrestee broke the law and why an arrest is necessary, such as the risk of them running away or hiding evidence. However, as said earlier, an arrest is a tool for investigating and prosecuting <em>criminal cases</em>. Breaking a contract by violating the terms of service's age clause in itself is not by itself a criminal matter.</p>
<p>However, being without (or with only diminished) legal capacity to sign contracts as a minor doesn't mean one can sign non-binding contracts that are void: Most jurisdictions <em>also</em> have laws that make signing a contract <em>with no intention to honor it</em> a crime, and even minors are responsible for their crimes. Those minor that commit crimes is what the <em>juvenile court</em> branch is handling, and they usually use different guidelines, especially in regards of the sentence for young criminals.</p>
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<p>1 - For example, in <a href="/questions/tagged/germany" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" rel="tag">germany</a> to have a valid credit contract one needs to be 18 as one needs to be <em>geschäftsfähig</em> (legally competent) to do this kind of contract. In <em>special cases</em> there are ways for a minor to get such a contract signed, but that needs to be backed by their legal guardian <em>and</em> a court order needs to be acquired for this specific credit contract - and the latter are extremely reluctant to grant such.<br><br>Would our hypothetical kid between 14 and 18 use a fake ID or the ID of an adult to acquire a contract, that would be fraud and forgery of documents (in this case: the contract), and they could the prosecuted for that.</p>
