As many as 25 percent of under 13 year olds are members of social networking sites. This is in direct contravention of the legislation that recommends that children should be 13 or over to use these sites. The rules were initially devised to prevent abuse of youngsters or to prevent them logging on but these barriers are easily overcome with little, if any, checks and balances.
Over two thirds of 5 to 7 year olds have visited Facebook and, what is more worrying, a significant number of parents are unaware of the social media activities of their children. the monitoring that is there to protect children is not only being flouted by children but the authorities are missing the dangers. what is more, it could be that parents are relying on presumed safety issues of a third party rather than being aware and alert themselves for the activity of their own progeny.
There is no room for complacency. There are numerous instances of young people being targeted by sexual predators within minutes of them being online. This has been proven not only by undercover officers posing as young people but by actual court convictions. Many of these instances relate to the over 13 age group – what hope is there for those that are younger and who are even less streetwise and aware of the potential or actual dangers posed?
If the issue needs to be compounded then let us do that immediately. Statistics have shown that children in the UK spend over 2 hours,on average, per day online and that 30% of them admit to doing things that their parents would be disapproving of.
It is an unhealthy and worrying combination.
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I completely agree. As a teenager with an underage sister addicted to facebook, I’m really concerned about what she does online. The problem with social networking is that they’re so bright and eyecatching. Underage kids are drawn in by that and the games. Soon, they’re on it non-stop, like my sister. She actually throws tantrums when it’s time for her to get off the computer but straightaway grabs her phone and gets back on. Parents need to be more aware of the dangers faced.
P.S: I’ve decided to use snippets of this article for my Law Essay. What date was this printed?
Thank you for the comments. I agree that children (in particular) are at extreme risk partly because I believe they have little insight into the dangers posed.