Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg has laid out the importance of education in influencing the economy in the long term at a summit on innovation in education.

"Education is clearly the biggest thing that will drive how the economy improves over the long term," Zuckerberg said. "We spend a lot of time talking about this."

Zuckerberg had announced $100 million to improve the school system in Newark, New Jersey last year. Zuckerberg said last week in an interview that improving education and making the Internet more open are his preferred topics of discussion.

There is lot of concerns among privacy groups and parents about millions of underage users accessing the social network site. Facebook has been saying that there is no single way of responding to the issue and the site is already taking caution and tries to keep the children under 13 from accessing the site.

Zuckerberg expressing his views said that younger kids should be allowed to access social networking sites. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) makes it mandatory for sites that collect user information to have members below the age of 13. However, Mr. Zuckerberg is determined to change the status quo and wants younger children to use such site as an educational tool.

"That will be a fight we take on at some point," he said. "My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age."