Monday, May 30, 2011

Should Kids Under 13 Be on Facebook?.

An article on Time.com presented this question in view of remarks made recently by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that he'd like younger children to be permitted to patronize his site.

Zuckerberg said this at the NewSchools Venture Fund's Summit in Burlingame, California last week.

First of all, I'm not sure how you can stop kids from signing up on FB. I'm sure we all know that there are so many children already using FB, and are so savvy with it too. Some have uploaded their video performances and all sorts of stuff on FB.

You can't keep FB and social networking from the 21st century generation of kids. I'm not sure if you should.

Is there an issue of misuse?Or security and safety? The need for parental or adult control? I believe these are the over-arching concerns.

Indeed, it all boils down to how involved parents (or guardians) are in the lives of their kids and how best parents et al deal with it.

As always, there is no end to discussions and debate on the impact of social media or social networking on society...

(Also Read - FaceBook Is Not Your Friend)

What's your view?

5 comments:

ninotaziz said...

The mother bird must teach the bird to fly. And what not to do, where not to go...

Likewise - Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter.

I held the computer for the first time when I was 18. Mum today surfs expertly in her 60s.But the world is way different for kids today who grow up with Ipads and Blackberries in hand.

Let us not handicap them.

affendi hussain said...

How to regulate when the age can be manipulate?

("/)

Yellowrabbit said...

You are right. There is no stopping the underaged kids from joining the fb community today. They come as young as a todler registered by the parents I suppose. And it has become the culture of a certain society -it's the in thing to be on fb !Every member of the family is on fb. Pictures after pictures of themselves and family are constantly updated. Cool.....

The question is how far these impressional lots be allowed to go unsupervised ? So exposed to the uncensored world and happily projecting themselves sometimes with 'untruthful' personal details. Soon, it will become way of life that they grow up with a set of fb values unable to differentiate right from wrong and truth from lies.

Parents and teachers are the most likely control mechanism and I pray to God that it will function.

selampit said...

How the heck do you stop kids from signing up on FB?

YOU CAN'T!

Even if Mr Zuckerberg finally come to his senses and SHUT DOWN the site once and for all, some yuppies out there will establish similar new sites before you type 'facebook' on your laptop.

The fact is, facebook is slowly evolving into a psychedelic drug of the 21st century. People, of all ages and from all walks of life are simply hooked to it.

Back then, if you want to escape reality you get high, nowadays all it takes is for you to LOG ON.

The effects of facebook on kids are undoubtedly devastating, both in terms of mental progress and psychological development. Facebook deviates children from their natural learning process and slowly turn them into cyberspace zombies, severely limiting their ability in the areas of logical deduction and impairing their intellectual faculty.

A typical facebook 'communication';

Selampit: Do you know that XXX, the new actress is such a slut?

Lina: OMG! She is?

Rose: IMO she' not, n FYI she's soooo hot!

Jerry: Srsly, I hear she likes to eat ABC.

Honestly, I have no trouble
digesting the contents of academic journals, but whenever I attempt reading an ongoing facebook 'chit chat', my mind goes numb.

Facebook originally appeared in Ivy League campuses (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Brown) across US as a tool of communication among America's creme de la creme.

Now there are approximately 7.5 million children under thirteen who are hooked to it. Although this constitutes a violation of the site's own term, Zuckerberg apparently is too busy pimping facebook to give a damn.

Therefore I believe, it is up to us PARENTS to give a damn. Remember when our teenage children were still toddlers, how we made a super effort to keep them safe?

Well we still need TO KEEP THEM SAFE now.

Keep your children away from facebook.

Jimmy said...

mostly kids register facebook to play the games inside...like farmville..
http://bit.ly/kuNAB3