Do you fear for your children’s safety on social networking sites?

With the increase of technology in this digital world, social networking is a mass phenomenon in popular culture. Each social site has a 13 year old restriction. But with the growing popularity of the internet there is now a market for younger children for social internet interaction.

Myspace , facebook , bebo and the like have a strict over 13 age limit. Due to The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act http://www.coppa.org/comply.htm

But can we stop children setting up fake profiles? not really! When director of Facebook policy Richard Allan was asked about he issue of younger children setting up accounts he said "There is a place where they can be reported. Those reports come to our staff and if it looks like they are nine or 10 they can just close the account," So really there isn’t an ideal method to stop them creating the accounts in the first place. It is inevitable that children will want to join social networking sites – we are naive if we don’t open our eyes to this. Children are actively using the internet at school and in their homes. This is the digital age and there are many positives to children using the internet. Internet improves educational attainment, makes sourcing information easy , provides entertainment, gives children inspiration and connects them to the big wide world.

But ofcourse with social networking sites comes a lot of danger to our vulnerable children – so perhaps the answer is to offer children’s social networking sites? Ok so many will say children should be outside, actually meeting and socialising with ‘real people’ but there is no evidence that children socialising with other children on the internet replace their actual socialisation. The internet can offer communication to other children in other areas, other countries, other social or other classes . The internet can connect our children globally. Also wouldn’t it be great if children could speak confidently to other children who could be in similar situations, having similar issues, dealing with similar life challenges. Some children are shy and may not feel brave enough to discuss certain things to friends or people they know. How many children actually know the number to Samaritans these day?!!

All this aside children under 13 want to be able to connect on social networking sites. Shockingly “Ofcom estimates that 30% of eight to 11-year-olds have Facebook profiles, despite the joining age of 13.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16836318 Which is worrying because as previously mentioned there isn’t enough moderating within the site to make sure our under 13s are safe! So with this I stress that parents guide them towards child friendly networking sites.

For example Club Penguin has over 150 children joined to it. And with this comes 200 moderators, who search through and look out for words that trigger a safety warning. Mr Lane Merrifeld set up Penguin Power because he felt that the internet at that time offered little chance for his own children to be social and safe. “Club Penguin takes the idea of safety and turns it on its head. Adults are not banned and, in theory, a paedophile could enter the site but their actions would be muted by filters limiting what can be discussed. …….Words such as address, school and phone number are not allowed. It is a truly anonymised environment. There is simply no opportunity for personally identifiable information," http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16836318

We need more sites like this; not all are successful. For eaxample Little Gossip social website which was shut down due to complaints form many including mumsnet as it resulted in cyber bullying and harmful gossip about youngsters. Mr Nash "I started the site with good intentions and it quickly exploded. I had 66,000 pieces of gossip in the first couple of days and it was impossible to police," he said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16836318

So with the best of intentions not all social networksing sites are good for children; Facebook, Little Gossip , Myspace , Bebo , is naming just a few. But to conclude I do think that benefits can come from children being able to connect with other children globally and in a safe manner.

If you are interested in child friendly websites please check out my favourite The Magic Sunglasses Project which connects and empowers children globally.

www.themagicsunglasses.com

Written by Kaley Herrick ,researcher of child development related to the creative arts.