One of the interesting observations of technology and our culture, is that the more common the technology becomes, the more it trickles down to younger and younger children. The use of computers and cell phones are two examples. There are children who are age 8 carrying around cell phones – a big change from five years ago! The ipad is another device that has lowered the age range of technology. There are some great applications for children who are toddlers or infants out there!
Facebook is another one of those ‘things’ that we’ve seen the perception and acceptability for children becoming more and more normal. One survey sees as many as 5 million children under the age of 10 who are on facebook. All it takes is a lie about ages to make the account active.
While this has been going on, Facebook has held to their age policy – but this weekend Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg caused a stir with a recommendation that children under 13 should be allowed to join social networking sites. Here’s an article about it:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/228348/kids_under_13_are_already_allowed_on_facebook.html
Now, to be fair Zuckerberg has come back and said they are not opening up facebook to children under age 13… here’s the article on that – I’d encourage you to read it and get a sense of why they won’t open it up… yet:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/us-facebook-zuckerberg-idUSTRE74O5L020110525
The reason is not because of right/wrong but because it is too difficult with existing regulations. The complexity of protecting children is the limiting factor — however if regulations change, or they can find a simpler way to deal with regulations, we should expect a policy change.
Now there are a lot of redeeming factors with facebook – it connects family, it could be used for education, and encourages social interaction – but as families our boundaries should not be determined by changable policies. The facebook age limit is 13 – but what is your family’s age limit?
Things change – perhaps your view of facebook will change for better or for worse – the point is that as families we need to be engaged in our culture, and make decisions and set boundaries – not let the world set them for us. The benefit of this is not just keeping a young child off of facebook, but re-establishing mom and dad as the guides for growing up, not the internet and the culture around us.