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DETROIT — Facebook is apologizing for a problem that makes a 104-year-old Michigan grandmother lie about her age on the social media website.
Joseph is legally blind and can't hear well, but Marguerite Joseph's granddaughter, Gail Marlow, reads and responds to all her Facebook messages.
"All of our family members always asked how grandma was doing on my Facebook page," Marlow told Local 4. "So I decided I would set up a page of her own so she could stay connected to her family in Canada."
She said Facebook won't let Joseph list her real age, though. When she tries inputting her grandmother's birth year as 1908, Facebook changes it to 1928.
I would love to see her real age on Facebook; I mean, in April she's going to be 105. It's special.
–Gail Marlow
So for the past two years, the Grosse Pointe Shores centenarian has remained 99 — online, anyway.
"Every time I tried to change the settings to the right year, Facebook always came back with an unknown error message and would send us right back to a year she wasn't born in," Marlow said. "I would love to see her real age on Facebook; I mean, in April she's going to be 105. It's special."
Facebook recently issued a statement regarding the issue.
"We've recently discovered an issue whereby some Facebook users may be unable to enter a birthday before 1910," the company said. "We are working on a fix for this and we apologize for the inconvenience."
