Should Kids Under 13 Be Allowed to Use Facebook?
SodaHead Living
2011/03/14 15:15:47
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It's a little-known fact that kids under age 13 are not allowed to use Facebook.
Why is this rarely talked about? Because millions of tweens use the site -- they just lie about their age.
Cristina Flores let her son Jake, 11, sign up for Facebook with a fake profile that says he's 15. Flores told The New York Times that she permits Jake to use the site because if she doesn't, she knows he'll just do it behind her back.
In one of Jake’s fifth-grade classes at Commodore Sloat Elementary school in San Francisco, 15 of the 30 students said they had Facebook accounts.
“And you should see all the third-graders who are on,” Aundrea Kaune, the class’s teacher, told the Times.
Some parents argue that social networking is the future, and it teaches kids valuable skills. Plus, Facebook is harmless enough, right?
But there are serious concerns. Hemanshu Nigam, the former chief security officer of Myspace who now runs an Internet safety consulting business, told the Times that an 11-year-old boy from New York State once accepted a friend request on Facebook from a girl in his class. But the girl’s account was fake, and the person behind it began posting images of the boy on sex-oriented sites.
Michelle Obama, for one, has said she does not want her 9- and 12-year-old daughters on Facebook.
What do you think? Is Facebook dangerous for kids?
Why is this rarely talked about? Because millions of tweens use the site -- they just lie about their age.
Cristina Flores let her son Jake, 11, sign up for Facebook with a fake profile that says he's 15. Flores told The New York Times that she permits Jake to use the site because if she doesn't, she knows he'll just do it behind her back.
In one of Jake’s fifth-grade classes at Commodore Sloat Elementary school in San Francisco, 15 of the 30 students said they had Facebook accounts.
“And you should see all the third-graders who are on,” Aundrea Kaune, the class’s teacher, told the Times.
Some parents argue that social networking is the future, and it teaches kids valuable skills. Plus, Facebook is harmless enough, right?
But there are serious concerns. Hemanshu Nigam, the former chief security officer of Myspace who now runs an Internet safety consulting business, told the Times that an 11-year-old boy from New York State once accepted a friend request on Facebook from a girl in his class. But the girl’s account was fake, and the person behind it began posting images of the boy on sex-oriented sites.
Michelle Obama, for one, has said she does not want her 9- and 12-year-old daughters on Facebook.
What do you think? Is Facebook dangerous for kids?
Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/technology/inter...
Top Opinion
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justonemom 2011/03/14 19:36:03No
+18They should make a Facebook Jr. with net nanny installed! This way if kids say anything wrong...bam, right to the parents inbox! Love it!
All types of discrimination are wrong.
its annoying.
Send them on Neopets before you even consider Facebook. Let them graduate from THAT first.