UK kids circumvent online ‘child protection’
p2pnet news view | P2P:- ‘Child protection’ measures operated by’ by MySpace, Facebook, et al, never were much more than a sop to the media, politicians and technically ignorant parents; and the latter rarely keep a diligent eye on what their children are up to online.
Using computers is second nature for many, if not most, of the kids of today and circumventing the age bar and fooling mums and dads is quite literally child’s play.
Now, nearly a quarter of British children between the ages of eight and 12, “are evading the age restrictions imposed by social networking sites Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, a poll of young people revealed last night,” says The Guardian, going on
The results suggest that more than 750,000 children are illicitly using the sites – which are supposed to be limited to teenagers and adults – potentially exposing them to risky communications with strangers.
The poll of 1,000 children was commissioned by Garlik, an online information company, which said parents are responding by secretly logging on to their children’s social networking pages to detect any reckless online behaviour.
A parallel poll of 1,000 parents found 72% try to protect their children by monitoring the contacts they make online. It found 26% of parents have set up their own social networking page from which they can spy on the children’s activities.
With three quarters of a million underage users in the UK, “Facebook, MySpace and Bebo need to take their own age restriction policies far more seriously to help allay parents’ real fears,” the story has Garlik CEO Tom Ilube stating.
Facebook and Bebo set a minimum age limit of 13 for users to register online and Myspace sets the limit at 14, says The Guardian, adding:
The poll found children spend an average of one hour a day on social networking sites. About a quarter of eight- to 15-year-olds admitted having strangers as friends on their social networking page. A fifth claimed to have met strangers they had encountered online. Two-thirds said they posted personal information on their pages, including their school and their mobile phone number.
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.Stumble It!
The Guardian – Facebook: Children evade social websites’ age limits, August 7, 2008
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