Parents help children lie for Facebook accounts.

[Chuckun]

Parents help children lie for Facebook accounts.

 

It probably won't surprise you that millions of underage kids -- some as young as age 8 -- are on Facebook, despite rules that prohibit children under 13 from joining the social-networking site.

 

What may be more startling, however, is this: Their parents are helping to sign them up.

 

These are among the findings of a new study appearing this week in First Monday, a peer-reviewed online journal. The four co-authors of the study argue that such age restrictions, inspired by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, are mostly ignored by kids and parents and only encourage dishonesty.

 

"Our data show that many parents knowingly allow their children to lie about their age -- in fact, often help them to do so -- in order to gain access to age-restricted sites," the authors wrote in the study's introduction.

 

The vast majority (95%) of the parents of 10-year-olds on Facebook were aware when their child signed up for the site, and 78% of those parents helped create the child's account, according to the study. For 11- and 12-year-olds, the percentages of parental knowledge and involvement were slightly lower.

Although 89% of the parents surveyed believe there should be a minimum age for Facebook, 78% believe there are circumstances that make it OK for their child to sign up for an online service even if he or she does not meet the site's minimum age requirement.

 

When asked what these circumstances might be, parents most often cited school-related activities and communicating with other family members.

 

What will happen if Generation Dora overruns Facebook?

 

The study is based on a July survey of 1,007 parents in the U.S. who had kids ages 10-14 living with them. According to its findings 55% of 12-year-olds and 32% of 11-year-olds were on Facebook, while 19% of 10-year-olds were active on the site.

 

The question of what age is appropriate for kids to join social-networking sites has been debated by privacy advocates and parental groups for years. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself has said that children younger than 13 should be allowed on his service because interacting online is an important part of today's educational process.

 

A study by Consumer Reports last spring found that 7.5 million children under 13 are members of Facebook.

 

Legislators enacted the COPPA law in 1998 -- the early days of the modern Internet -- to protect kids against predatory marketing, safety risks and other abuses that may result from others having access to their other private data. COPPA requires websites to gain "verifiable parental consent" before collecting information on children under 13.

 

But many sites, wary of the headaches involved with trying to enforce the law, simply added age restrictions to their terms of service -- those wordy legal documents that users rarely read before signing up.

 

The authors of the new study argue that COPPA has had unintended consequences -- restricting kids' access to the Internet while encouraging parents to act unethically -- and suggest that the age-based law should be replaced by universal privacy protections.

 

Source: CNN

 

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I say we ban facebook first, then ban these idiots from procreating.. Yes?

[icky?/]

I say we ban facebook first, then ban these idiots from procreating.. Yes?

 

Yes, please!

[LostSoul]

My mom made my lil sister one so she could play games on it and she is 6!

[Chuckun]

Oh gee.. There are plenty of places to play games without having the potential risk of facebook involved! >.<

 

Self plug: taz Games.com or any other flash game site would do!

[Kat0n]

Parents are more and more irresponsable nowadays...A lot of people describe social network like a danger for the young, and there is still 6-10 years old people who sign in on Facebook...After that, young people become addicted and everyone complain u.u

[Panini*Hobbit@mp3]

This is just getting more dangerous everyday.. I don't understand why you would want to set up your kids on a social network site at the age of 6, I mean at 6 I could barely turn on the computer in fear of breaking it! My smaller sister who's 11 doesn't have a facebook as of yet but she likes to play the flash games online.. only a matter of time I guess before she asks to set a FB up.

 

I've seen FB pages of kids that are only a few years old, shame on the parents.

[LostSoul]

Facebook, or any social networking site is dangerous for some adults, teens, and especially kids, its ridiculous really, sorry it took me so long to reply lol work hours are crazy right now

[collectivist]

It's a bit of a double sided blade for me.

If you let your kids wander social networkng sites and the wider net freely, then, just like walking in the street, they're likely to run into some kind of trouble that they don't know how to handle. But in the same stride, try to hide the "outside world" from them and they will simply rebel and "run into the streets" while you aren't looking (If you're following the dual analogy).

 

There is the one solution that has been true since the dawn of time...

Watch... Your... Kids...

Just like walking down a street, you need to be side by side to your child to know what they're doing so that when they do inevitably walk into a problem, you are (like the good parent you should be) there for them to show them a responsible and effective way of handling the problem.

 

In stern agreement with Cryos, too many parents are simly focused on their life and their social network that they forget exactly how much of their childs' development is constructed from the actions that they take, so when a kid sees his mum ignoring him because she's on facebook, then when he's on facebook, he ignores her. This digital age may have raptured the populace of the world, but I still remember that communication, by any means, is how we all learn, so I don't jeer Facebook, but I do wonder why people see it as someone's safehouse instead of the city that it is.

 

Seeing it like a city is quite a good guiding principle being that:

1: you wouldn't put pics of your "assets" all over the city.

2: when someone offers you something, you're skeptical, giving you time to judge trustworthyness.

3: you wouldn't leave your kids to roam around the city alone unless you felt they were fit to do so.

 

But keep in mind, advancements in our "digital city" create new problems.

1: When you moan, people "hear" it long after you've moaned and your moan will probably circle round to the person you're moaning about.

2: Now, the "ice cream shop" (any untrustworthy site) is linked with your "market" (facebook), so every time you visit your market, it keeps offering you icecream.

3: The shops NEVER forget who you are, what you bought, when you bought it and what else you were looking at when you were browsing.

 

These are not complete in any way, shape or form and it would be quite amusing to get people pondering all the ways in which the internet is just as public a place as the highstreet, but we'd be here forever. The simple fact is, watch your kids and teach them how to walk. They're being thrown in this face first while we've all had time to adjust to this second world and just like real life, we know how to avoid danger, they don't, watch your kids....

 

(Btw, thanks for starting this topic. It's refreshing to find high brow intellectual debate alongside power-gaming.)

[WeetBix KiD]

Wow 6! My eldest is 5 and there is no way i would make her a facebook account. Im picky about my facebook account as it is. I have it set so privately you cant search for me using my name and can only see me if we have friends in common. Also really picky about who i add. Too many odd balls out there sadly.

My 5 year old gets very limited computer time as it is....and thats to play some games although I prefer her to play educational. Hopefully by the time she is 13 social networks will die out *fingers crossed* (dont like my chances tho)

Kids dont need to be on social networking sites....Who do they need to add besides school friends (that they see everyday at school) or family (that they probably see alot of too)

[WeetBix KiD]

3: The shops NEVER forget who you are, what you bought, when you bought it and what else you were looking at when you were browsing.

 

That is soo true, not long ago i was watching a program here in Australia that soo many people had this false belief that when they deleted soemthing (say a nude pic) of themselves off their comp or the internet that it was gone for good. They dont realise that these things circle around the web forever. not just photos everything is recorded, Chat logs, web cam footage EVERYTHING. There is no such thing as privacy on the internet

[collectivist]

Wow 6! My eldest is 5 and there is no way i would make her a facebook account. ... Kids dont need to be on social networking sites....Who do they need to add besides school friends (that they see everyday at school) or family (that they probably see alot of too)

 

Well, like I said. It's a double edged blade. The social networking sites in themselves aren't bad. They're equivelant to open public spaces like parks and kids gather at parks... and weirdos do too... As you say, they only need to add their friends and family, but they do need to be taught how to set their privacy settings so they don't share everything with everyone and even more, you have to make them understand that interacting with friends and family on the net has concequential differences in that everything they do and say will be recorded. It may not be public, but it will be tied to them. I myself laugh at the irony as this site will log my ip as I post this. So teach them how to use it and how to stay safe, but denying access will only lead to rebellion. Epecially if it's hypocritical denial. It's not really fair to ban your kids from a facebook account if you yourself have one.

 

Im picky about my facebook account as it is. I have it set so privately you cant search for me using my name and can only see me if we have friends in common. Also really picky about who i add. Too many odd balls out there sadly.

 

Wow... You're a hell of a lot open than me. You can only find me by my e-mail address. Only my friends can see and post what I write on. Only friends can see what pictures I'm tagged in even if they're not my photo and friends of friends certainly can't see me. Facebook is a viral digital city. Stay as anonymous as you can.

 

Hopefully by the time she is 13 social networks will die out *fingers crossed* (dont like my chances tho)

 

 

Nah, me neither... How about I give you odds of 100:1?

[collectivist]

3: The shops NEVER forget who you are, what you bought, when you bought it and what else you were looking at when you were browsing.

 

That is soo true, not long ago i was watching a program here in Australia that soo many people had this false belief that when they deleted soemthing (say a nude pic) of themselves off their comp or the internet that it was gone for good. They dont realise that these things circle around the web forever. not just photos everything is recorded, Chat logs, web cam footage EVERYTHING. There is no such thing as privacy on the internet

 

These things simply have to be understood. If you take a picture on your device (say, phone) and put it directly on to your computer, then you delete it, then no. That won't be recorded over the internet. However deleting something doesn't delete it per se, it simply (for windows) renames the first character of the file name as the hexadecimal value of E5 which the OS knows is the sign of an old deleted file that can be overwritten. This can be recovered with many free tools but the possibility degrades over time as new data may overwrite parts of the file...

 

But if you ever... EVER... contribute to any website, you lose control of that data and surrender it to the owner of the site and there is a quite a large chance that, if the site is important, your contribution will be archived by other data storage centers. The more important the site, the longer it will be kept, and by contribution, I include all of the expected, such as photos, comments, files etc. but much more the simple act of visiting. Ever been to a site that your friend told you to go to? Ever wanted to check out something that's controvertial? That's your IP logged.

 

However, with the rapid advancements in OS UIs and integrated internet, how many day-to-day people actually dig down into the hardware to get a deep understanding of what's actually happening to their data?

 

(*Points to the edited by line below* SEE!)

Edited November 8, 2011 by collectivist

[Jorz]

when i was 10 and we got our first pc the only reason i turned it on was to use paint.

[Chuckun]

when i was 10 and we got our first pc the only reason i turned it on was to use paint.

 

Same here >.<

[Reptile*]

When I was 10 we used to play OUTSIDE. 20 years ago RoFl... oh those memories.