More Than 5 Million Facebook Users Are 10 and Under, Study Says
RSSBy Lauren Barack
Students consistently bypass Facebook's age requirements—just ask the 7.5 million users who are 13-years-old and younger, the minimum age listed on the social media site's own terms of service, says a survey from Consumer Reports. "Among young users, more than 5 million were 10 and under, and their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents," reads the report in the June issue. That information is hardly surprising to media specialists around the country who routinely hear young students talk about their Facebook accounts and the amount of time they devote to the popular site. "At least half of my sixth graders claim to have Facebook pages," says Deb Logan, a library media specialist at Mount Gilead Middle High School in Mount Gilead, Ohio, by email. "One even recently commented on how easy it is to spend 'too much time' on Facebook." To school librarians, the ease of creating an account—and bypassing parental oversight and Facebook's own rules—emphasizes how critical it is for students to learn information literacy skills. Children who want to be online, will find ways to create a social media account or even a gaming avatar so they can link up with friends in cyberspace. That's why helping kids understand how to safely navigate the Web is crucial, say media specialists. "To me that indicates just how important it is parents and educators pay attention to what our students are doing online," says Cassandra Barnett, a school library media specialist at Fayetteville High School Library in Fayetteville, AR, and the immediate past president of the American Association of School Librarians by email. "We need to have conversations about the dangers of interacting with strangers online and the responsibilities of using social media. We protect our children best when we give them the tools to use these sites responsibly and safely, not by denying them access through filtering. Obviously, age restrictions that can't be strictly enforced aren't going to solve the problem." Politicians are now casting their vote on this issue as well. For example, in California, state senator and majority leader Ellen Corbett (D) has introduced a bill requiring social networking sites to remove certain kinds of information that can identify a child under the age of 18 if a parent requests it. Tagged "The Social Networking Privacy Act," the bill comes with a $10,000 penalty for each violation, if requests are not addressed within 48 hours. But even with politicians now stepping into the social media oversight arena, media specialists believe that educators and parents must still push for students to learn how to safely navigate cyberspace, especially as they will help shape this virtual world in the future. "It has become a part of their life but they really know very little about how to act or the consequences of their actions on these sites," says Chris Black, a media specialist and cross country coach at Lely High School in Naples, FL. "Media specialists have made great strides in teaching research on the Internet over the past few years. We need to continue working with the students on proper use and behavior while on the Internet including social media." This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe. I get friend requests from current students and family
members that are underage for Facebook. I always send
them a message letting them know that until they are 13,
I will not confirm their request. * = Required information
Reader Comments (1)
Posted by A. Young-Buckler on May 20, 2011 12:01:46PM
