A 10-year-old hacker has been awarded thousands of dollars for breaking into Instagram – a service he’s too young even to sue.

The Finnish security expert found a trick that would allow anyone to delete comments that had been left by users.

The boy – named as Jani in local reports that did not reveal his second name – said that the hack allowed anyone’s comments to be deleted, “even Justin Bieber”.

The hack wins the young expert $10,000 as part of Facebook’s bug bounty programme. That hands out prizes to people who find flaws in the company’s security so that they can be found and fixed.

Jani is now the youngest ever person to win one of the prizes that Facebook gives out for hacking its products. He beats the 13-year-old who previously broke into a Facebook product.

Facebook privacy settings you should know about Show all 6 1 /6 Facebook privacy settings you should know about Facebook privacy settings you should know about Change who sees your posts. Anything you post on Facebook - from a status update to a photo - can be given its own privacy setting. 'Public' means that the information can be found via Google, or you can create custom groups of friends (http://ind.pn/1bVJJ2H) to share info with. Remember: whatever setting you last choose will become default until you change it again. Facebook privacy settings you should know about Check what your friends are sharing about you. Sometimes it's not you, but your friends that give information away. Follow this link to see the information that your friends might be sharing with third party apps - http://ind.pn/1bVVar6. Click the 'edit' option to the right of 'Apps other use' and un-tick every category of info you don't want to share. There's also an option above labelled 'Apps you use' that lets you select which apps can use your Facebook data elsewhere on the web. Don't trust them? Click the little cross on the right. Facebook privacy settings you should know about Hide old posts. If you're keen to make your Facebook past more private, limiting who can see your old posts should be your first step. Follow this link - http://ind.pn/1bVK7hv - and click 'Limit The Audience for Old Posts on Your Timeline'. You can make all of these old photos and stats updates vieweable to the public, friends only, or just yourself. From this page you can also change who can send you messages and friend requests. Facebook privacy settings you should know about Create friend lists. Since September 2011 Facebook has let you create different 'lists' of friends in order to let you separate what your close buddies and your work colleagues see. Facebook can give you a head start by suggesting lists based on who you went to school with and where people live - and you can even choose to browse a News Feed populated only by a certain list. Follow the link below for a full guide: http://ind.pn/1bVPu0d Facebook privacy settings you should know about Limit adverts. Pages you like will sometimes be used by Facebook to endorse a product to your friends. If you don't wnat these to show up head to this page - http://ind.pn/1j6Mc2b - select "Pair my social actions with adverts for no one" and click Save Changes. Facebook privacy settings you should know about Check your profile. If you're still worried about which of your photos or posts are visible to people you can check what the public (or any specific individual) sees when they click on your profile. View your profile by clicking on your namem then click the cog in the bottom right hand corner of your cover photo, then select 'View as...'

That means that he is the only person who has ever been given the award who is technically too young to use the service. Like Facebook, Instagram’s terms ban anyone who is under-13 from being on it.

Instagram debunked

Jani and his brother are experienced at finding security problems in various piece of tech, their father told Finnish news site Iltalehti. But Jani’s Instagram hack is the pair’s biggest yet, he said.