Kids ignore social networks safety rules
p2pnet news view | Kids & Kartels:- “Two and a half million children aged between 8 and 17 have created profiles on social networking sites, according to research,” says Times Online. “But parents fail to realise that poor security means that about four in ten personal pages are open for anyone to look at.”
The three main social networks, Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, “claim to have a minimum age limit of 13 or 14, a quarter of all children with internet access and aged between 8 and 11 say that they have a page on a social networking site, according to the communications regulator, Ofcom,” says the story.
“The fears for children’s safety are highlighted as worries grow about the influence that social networks have had in encouraging suicides in Bridgend, South Wales. Concerns have also been expressed about the danger of paedophiles.”
And they’ll be in even more danger if they’re of the mindset developed and encouraged by online trash such as Britain’s Miss Bimbo.
Says UK watchdog Ofcom, quoted by the BBC >>>
Says 49% of children 8-17 have an online profile
22% of 16+ have an online profile
On average adults have profiles on 1.6 sites
63% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Bebo
37% of 8 to 17-year-olds with profile use MySpace
18% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Facebook
59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends
16% of parents do not know if their child’s profile is visible to all
33% of parents say they set no rules for their children’s use of social networks
43% of children say their parents set no rules for use of social networks
More than a fifth of people in the UK aged 16 and over have an online profile, the Ofcom survey showed, says the story, going on:
“But the report revealed a ‘significant difference’ between the perception of the risks and use of social networks between parents and children.
Forty-one per cent of children had set their profile so that it was visible to anyone, according to the report, but, “16% of parents admitted they did not know if their child’s profile could be seen or not by strangers.
” ‘There is an issue about parenting,’ said Robin Blake, head of media literacy at Ofcom.
Meanwhile, “To counter the problem, the Home Office will announce on Friday a new voluntary code of conduct for social networks,” says Times Online.
“Bebo, MySpace and Facebook are to agree that, when under18s set up profiles, they will be set to a high privacy setting as a default.”
Miss Bimbo – Evans-Jacquart `Boob Jobs` Bimbo, April 2, 2008
Times Online – Children’s social network pages ‘must have privacy lock’, April 2, 2008
BBC – Children flock to social networks, April 2, 2008
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April 2nd, 2008 at 7:19 am
“Kids ignore social networks safety rules”
…direct from the department of “Duh”?
how much money did this so-called “study” cost UK taxpayers?
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:48 am
Probably a bit more than the one which concluded mice become drunks if you pump alcohol into them hour by hour, day by day.
Cheers!
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
i wish i were a mouse.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:05 am
ya think?
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
The computer I use at home was given to me by a woman who’s teen daughter made a habit of clicking yes to any box that popped up on the screen just to make it go away. It was chock full of nasty, to the point that it would not even boot anymore. I offered to reformat it for her. She elected to buy a new one instead, and gave me the old one. So I reformatted and put a fresh OS on it, bumped up the RAM a bit and presto! A perfectly useful computer. The daughter is now at college with a sweet laptop. Maybe I’ll “inherit” that one too.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I don\’t normally leave comments… but I really enjoyed your post! I will be leaving a link back here in my blogroll! Thanks!