Under-aged children should not be allowed to join social networking site online?

@zandi458 (28102)
Malaysia
November 29, 2010 2:59am CST
Facebook is probably the leader in social networking site at the moment. Correct me if am wrong but the popularity of facebook is beyond compare. Even the underdeveloped minds (minors) know what facebook is all about and some secretly become members in facebook without their parents permission. My daughter who is only 10 years old joined facebook without me knowing it not until she requested me to be her 'friend' in facebook. I was terribly annoyed and demanded that she delete her accounts there. She did but I know she has assumed another identity without me knowing it. She has become smarter and no longer request me to be in her facebook. Knowing that I have no time to be always shadowing her activities in the net, I just hope that she doesn't end up a net social beast. As a parent my fear is always there as I would never know the extend of influences she gets from socializing online. Unfortunately in our cyber age, we are powerless to stop the speed of this invention from rooting in the kids mind as they were born during the computer and internet era.
7 people like this
28 responses
• India
29 Nov 10
Hello my friend zandi458 ( Ji, So nice of you for taking up such a delicate issue. The situation is realy alarming for all parents like you. I think computer programmer with deep knowledge of human body may succeed in coming time to stop such approach byu under age (minors). Itb is perusalby parents only to motivate and keep watch . Also I suggest that respective land rules may be ammended where sudden raids may be conducted by poice and action taken against all such cyber cafes and all concerned persons. May God bless You and have a great time.
1 person likes this
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
30 Nov 10
I agree with you the law should say that under-age children should be banned from cyber cafes.
1 person likes this
• India
3 Dec 10
Hello my friend zandi458 Ji, So nice of you for your positive comments. law should forbid such entrances to any cyber cafe and treated as a crime by owners to stop such practice. It would help lot in building nations good citizenship. May God bless You and have a great time.
@myfb2009 (8296)
• Malaysia
6 Dec 10
Hi Zandi, hope i am not late to reply. From my own opinion, i also think children below the age of 15, should never be allowed to join any social networking site. Because their way of thinking is still not fully matured yet. They should be advised to join some other sites that are safe for children. I remembered before when my sisters are still below that age, my parents didn't allowed them to join any social networking site for fear that they will fall trap of an unwanted gang, who online to trap unsuspected children into doing unwanted things. So the best way is, try to educate her and make her understand the danger of these kind of social networking sites to children and her as well. Hopefully, she will understand it and free yourself from all your worries.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
11 Mar 11
Facebook should have age limits and should not allow kids to sign up with this site. It is too dangerous as they can be easily influenced.
@sharone74 (4837)
• United States
29 Nov 10
It is true that kids join facebook and friend their little school friends. It is equally true that there are predators out there just looking for young children on the net who reveal too much about themselves. Even adults can reveal too much and then some weirdo finds them and that's it! You have to make the time to shadow your child online. Get a key logger program or something that will help you get a handle on what she is up to.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
30 Nov 10
In fact I've already put a password in my computer and I am the only one now who can access my computer.
@dawnald (85129)
• Shingle Springs, California
30 Nov 10
I let Dearra join Facebook at 13. I think she is mature enough. I don't want the twins on there. They are on a few kids sites where their ability to chat it limited, and it won't allow personal information to be entered. It blocks them from posting e-mail addresses and states and telephone numbers and so on...
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
I am not aware that there are kids sites. I must check that out.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85129)
• Shingle Springs, California
1 Dec 10
They're not so much social sites as game playing sites, but there is a social aspect to them.
@gunagohan (3414)
• India
29 Nov 10
They should never be allowed to join any social networking site. They should be advised to join some other sites that is for children. Facebook is completely an Adult networking site and children should not be allowed even under parental care. Because, sometimes parents might be busy, so it is good to prevent them using any social networking sites. Social networking sites have an age criteria , that legally permits them to use social networking sites
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
30 Nov 10
Children are too exposed to the internet and they probably know much better than the adults as they talk to each other in school everyday and if one of them has joined a site then it will spiral from mouth to mouth so the whole school will join in the fray. They create their own fantasy world.
• Philippines
3 Dec 10
I still believe that social networking sites should set certain age limits. It's undeniably true that now a days with the technologies available, children are very accessible to new informations and new ways to connect with the world. However, at times, especially without parent supervision, we cannot tell where and what sites these kids are being led to. It's better if they would be exposed with child-friendly sites first but still with their parents looking over them.
• Philippines
3 Dec 10
i think even with the age limits. minors can still falsify their ages. because there is really no way of knowing if a user who signs up is a minor or not. this message may seem impossible but the admins of the social network sites ought to create a program that will really determine the age of a user signing-up.
@mustread (224)
• Bulgaria
29 Nov 10
They all could lie about their age and the sites have a little do to do to prevent that. Children have the right to socialize as well and facebook is quite safe I think , because your kid can pick up only real life friends in her friends section. That's why I like facebook - perverts can't get near you if you upgrade your security and make your photos visible only for friends. Some kids enjoy socializing in real life , some on the net - both are dangerous for their little minds but we can't stop them from it . We shouldn't because by making mistakes they learn and will be experianced later in life which will help them a lot - trust me . I am grateful to all my mistakes because most of them made me a better person and let piece by piece to all my past moments . That's my point of view .
1 person likes this
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
30 Nov 10
Hopefully she is not that adventurous and befriend with unknown people in facebook.
@breezie (1246)
• Canada
1 Dec 10
My daughter is 12 and a a half and I have allowed her just recently to get a facebook account. She is not allowed to add anyone as a friend unless I ok it and I have to know her password and be able to access her account anytime. Really the only thing she does is play games and message her grandmas and family members. I know I can trust my daughter, she's a good kid so I don't have a problem with it. In my opinion it is up to the parents to know what their child is doing online and monitor their activity.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
11 Mar 11
Kids can be angelic in the presence of their parents but we are always not around to monitor their movements. With friends influence they pick up a lot of rubbish and for all we know they have multiple accounts in facebook without our knowledge. Of course one account is a signed and approved by mama but the hidden ones unknown to us are kept as a secret. This is happening to most of my friends children including mine. Children these days are computer savvy than their parents.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
29 Nov 10
no I think FB should put out not allowed till 18 like soem places do to many out there want to hurt you and young kids dont know that. JUst hav eto get thru to her thr are mean people out there that can tell her anything as alot lie to kids even grownups get lied too. I wrote something on my grandsons page he ddnt like he delete it lololo but not before his daughters grandma saw it and read it an she agreed with me on what I had wrote. He is in prison and not learning anything at all from it makes me s sad
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
30 Nov 10
But I think it is difficult for facebook or any social sites to know the real age of its members. They can always lie about their age to join these social site. I sorry to hear that your grandson is in prison. Why is he there?
@Elixiress (3878)
29 Nov 10
It is a form of socialising and socialising is important for children to develop so I don't have a problem with children using social networking websites. I understand that you may not have time to shadow your child to make sure she is not going on one website or another, but you could check the history of the computer after she has been on ... that will tell you what websites she has been on.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
Yes, I agree that socializing is good for the children's development but I believe that they should grow up normally as kids and should only socialize with the their peer groups.
@Elixiress (3878)
1 Dec 10
I personally only socialised with my peer group on facebook until I started work. I would only add people on facebook who I went to school with, friends of friends, people I met at after school clubs etc.
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
29 Nov 10
I don't think she is too young to be on facebook but i think it's something she should have discussed w/u before she joined.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
30 Nov 10
She joined in recently when I was on vacation. I would not have allowed her to join any social sites online knowing how dangerous it can be for children to be chatting online with unknown people.
1 person likes this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
30 Nov 10
I agree w/u. They will all take advantage of u if they can, lol. Hope u had a good vacation.
@elitess (5070)
• Ipswich, England
1 Dec 10
Hello zandi. I have been reading another facebook discussion only a few days ago, and the person there said that their nephew or child, don't remember exactly, found and joined a social site for kids, because she was not allowed to join facebook. I am thinking that you can't control every action of the children while they are online, and to do so would lead to further problems - like what is forbidden becomes more attractive, so the child may try / search for alternate ways of accessing these kind of sites. Searching for a few interesting / captivating / motivating sites that are more suited for children would be a good alternative, and the child might even like it better - thinking of an innocent children site where you can play games - try prizee.com - i have used it for a few years for fun, and it is pretty interesting. I would also recommend to search the Disney sites for children, they should be safe as well.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
2 Dec 10
You know children like to feel adult so they try to imitate the adult actions. I have a facebook account but it never crossed my mind that my daughter is eying my action when I am chatting with my friends there. The opportunity for her strike when I went overseas and when I came back after 3 months she has already established herself in facebook as she has tons of new virtual friends there acquired during my absence. I am thinking of diverting her attention to kids sites that might benefit her better.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
5 Dec 10
My daughter is on there and is technically under age, but all her school friends are there and we both have accounts, so we decided that she could go on to Facebook, but only if we have access to her account and can monitor her behaviour. She is pretty sensible and just likes to play the Facebook games with her friends mainly. She knows that there are predators that target young girls on social networking sites and she knows not to give any details whatsoever about her age, location, where she will be on the weekend and so forth. Luckily she is pretty mature for her age.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
11 Mar 11
It is not surprising that kids are smarter than we were in their age before. We should all blame it on the new technology for expediting their mental growth.
• Philippines
2 Dec 10
I agree , I also have two siblings which are minors and they are really addicted to Facebook. Yes, Facebook everyday, after school those two will immediately go to the computer and start to play. They enjoy the social network very much but they forget their responsibility as students and I'm really disappointed. Whenever I tell them to stop, the more they are bound to disobey me. What more is , they come up with a bad habit , like forgetting to change clothes after class and eating on time. they tend to focus on the game and whenever we scold them they will just throw to us the questions that why we are also engage in the social network. I think it really does a bad effect to minors, it really destroyed their study habits which should be first develop and of course it takes them away from outdoor activities which they should be engaged with to develop their skills.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
11 Mar 11
Facebook are so addictive and is an in thing now especially among the younger generations. They rather be on facebook than socialize with their real world friends.
• United States
30 Nov 10
I don't believe that any child should be allowed to join any of these social networking sites. I personally think that until a child is a certain age in my eyes about 16 they shouldn't be allowed to interact in that manner. If a child is using the computer before that age it should be in controlled environment such as the internet. There are also, things that can be done to a modem, router, and login that will block the site from being accessible from that location and only from that location. I believe if parents are going to give them access to things in their rooms that are not going to be under supervision then they should look into how to protect them from seeing things that you see on the internet easily. There are also many programs out there that will allow you to login and see what your child has been doing on the computer cause lets face it a parent can't keep up with all the new trends out there especially with youtube and all the how to videos. Will we ever be able to totally stop this of course not but the best thing we can do is to minimize the amount of time that they will be involved in it. Little thing "We can do to avoid it". Setup router preferences and policies to only allow internet access during certain times. Monitor all traffic going to their ip address, and blocking sites that lets face it a child shouldn't see. If you need help performing any of these tasks please let me know I will be more than happy to assist you in doing any of this. Please allow a little bit of time for me to get back to you I will need to research the layout of your routers before I will be able to give any help!
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
I am completely ignorant of all these computer stuff and the only thing I did was to put a password to my computer so no one can access my computer now. Thanks for your help, definitely I'll look for you when I need further help.
@siZidni (1860)
• Indonesia
30 Nov 10
that's it. why i don't like children involved in internet social networking. because it's beyond our control. by letting her or him to be online inside our home i think it's one of good solution came to my head. since in our home, at least we know she/he is still there with us. i am very sad for what happened lately here in indonesia, there were kidnapping even murders because of those bad people searching their victims online.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
News like that is always haunting parents who have children using social networking sites. It happened and it will happen again. So the best thing is to keep guard on the activities of our children so they won't be trapped by these sick people online.
@blue65packer (11826)
• United States
30 Nov 10
y first question is why aren't you supvervising your daughter time on the computer? No child under 16 should be on the internet without a parents supervision!!!!! That was your first mistake and no wonder she got on Facebook! I am sure she has been on other websites she should not be!! You need to get your daughter under control or you will have a lot more problems with her in the future! No child should be on Facebook!!! There are people on there that are stalkers,pedophiles and others!!! So what is the problem here?
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
You see I am always on the move. When ever I am not around she will take control of my desktop computer and she opened her facebook account while I was in Australia. I was shocked to get her friend's request in facebook while I was there. I keep reminding her the danger of chatting in facebook or online for that matter.
• Singapore
30 Nov 10
I don't think that's safe. In the computer world and especially sites like this, anybody can assume a different identity and then simply add people and some are worst. They prey on those weaker people and could ask them out and do something of the unimaginable.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
The cyber world has become the target area of the sick minded people who are trying to lure the young and innocent into their nets. It is therefore not a safe place for children to be online to socialize.
@buggles64 (2709)
• United States
30 Nov 10
I allowed my 10 year old to have a facebook account, because I would rather have her have a facebook account rather than going to a friend's home and opening an account behind my back. In this way, I can monitor who is on her friends' list and whom she is communicating with. I know a few kids who have done this (open an account without their parents' knowledge) and they can add whom ever they wish to their friends' list. At least, with knowing...I am trusting her and allowing her to make some decisions for herself. Trust has to start somewhere.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
I agree with you. Rather than doing it behind your back, it is better to just let her do it under your watchful eyes.
@ybong007 (6643)
• Philippines
30 Nov 10
You're right Facebook has grown into a social networking giant that almost everyone who has access to the internet has an account, even multiple accounts. I think there's a certain age requirement before a member can subscribe but just indicate the right age requirement and you're subscribed right away. The problem is not with Facebook itself but the people who are using it. There are good people but we can't deny the fact that there are bad people using Facebook as well. That's why it's important that minors using it should be monitored with their activities not to meddle in their affairs and to violate their privacy but for their own protection.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
We will never know how good the people are in facebook. Their popularity might have opened the eyes of predators, pedophiles and they might already be nesting comfortably in facebook waiting to snap on innocent children.
• Philippines
30 Nov 10
oh please please take young kids off these social networking sites it just encourages cyber predators to take advantage of them or at least they should be moderated and guarded at all times when entering these sites
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
1 Dec 10
Children like to imitate their friends and if one has a facebook, everyone wants to have one and they teach each other how to go about getting one. So they have a platform to chat online. It is something like a trend these days.
1 person likes this