Tech Savvy Mama

Parenting in the Digital Age

Should Children Be Allowed To Use Facebook?

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This sponsored post was written by Maggie Durango, a freelance writer and occasional guest blogger.

Any sane parent would approach their child’s use of technology and the Internet with a certain amount of trepidation given the fact that there are so many predators online that try and abuse young kids. Every parent wants to keep their child safe and, unfortunately, you don’t want to handicap your child and shield them from technology because there’s a high likelihood that they’re going to need to develop these skills in order to be competitive later on in life. You have to set up boundaries and be active in knowing what kind of information your child is receiving but should your child be allowed to use Facebook, even if you’re monitoring it? Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive office of the social media giant, thinks so.

 
Presently, there’s an age restriction of 13 before a person can start an account. Some parents feel that even this age is far too young for kids to be interacting with unknown individuals. Zuckerberg argues that it’s only to better track what’s going on. He argues that pre-teens already flood Facebook and he says he only wants to make it official. Zuckerberg currently plans to fight the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which made it illegal for children under 13 to use online services that require personal information.
 
It’s hard to think that anyone would back this argument up but, according to a recent online survey conducted by Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project, there is support. The study suggests that Zuckerberg would have at least some success on this issue. The survey was of a thousand adults and nearly 20 percent of those questioned felt no issue with their pre-teen using some social media venue.
 
Some feel that using social media could be useful. Many parents are working professionals that have demanding jobs and many more parents have returned to school for Medical Assistant Certification, among other things. It would be easier for a parent to keep in touch with their child via Facebook or other sources. Parents could also have access to their child’s account and see their activities. Even with these added benefits, it’s still questionable whether this is healthy for children.
 
It remains to be seen whether or not Zuckerberg has enough clout to turn over this entrenched legislation and open the doors for pre-teen users. Regardless if he’ll be successful, Zuckerberg stated, “That will be a fight we take on at some point. My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age.” Only time will tell but it’s likely that, at some point, as our society becomes increasingly tech-savvy that we’ll end up questioning our current policies on the issue of technology and children.

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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. brendan james says

    13 seems like the right age. Obviously, parents should be keeping an eye on things but I feel facebook is right in their minimum age. I also think its good that kids get exposed to social networks and the web in general to spark creative interest in the sector. Quite frankly, there’s a global shortage of good web and mobile engineers.

  2. Valen Erap says

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