What happens to someone's facebook profile after they die?

[CirqueDuFreak]

I knew a boy(I wasn't friends with him, but I had friends who were) who died of cancer last year. I usually have the strangest thoughts, but I noticed that he still had a facebook profile. Every now and then, someone posts on his wall a paragraph about how much they miss him.
Then I wonder, has it not been deleted because the family and friends want to memorialize him, or because they can't(no password to get into the account)?

[mario]

From my understanding his profile may become a memorial or closed. I don't know too much about it but I came to the same question about someone who died. Here's a link with further info

[CULT OF CARTMAN]

It just stays there, its estimated that about 30 million facebook accounts belong to dead people. Kind of creepy but its a good way of perserving their memory.

[Mr. Know it all]

Well, they can't get into it, but if they want it deleted, they can always contact Facebook. So they just will leave it as a memorial to remember the times they had with him over Facebook. If someone reports the profile saying he passed away, they will delete it. But that would be pretty rude without consent of the parents/family of the boy.

Even sometimes they will create a "like" page on his behalf that people can express their condolences and memories on.

[Soham]

Nothing Happens. The Profile will just stay there until & unless someone (who knows the password) decides to deactivate it.

[Alex]

It usually just stays there, unless friends or family know the password.

[Jill Potter]

They will keep if there do who is friends with them, is stuck like that. The do it so the account basically turns into a page.