Online Safety - Facebook for Kids under 13

There was a great deal of buzz this week when Facebook announced that it was looking at creating a “Baby Facebook” that would allow kids under 13 years old to be on Facebook but with built-in parental controls for Internet safety.

I’m not sure if this is just a publicity stunt on Mark Zuckerberg’s part or not but it’s probably the worst-kept secret that there are already millions of kids under the age of 13 on Facebook.  According to Consumer Reports, 7.5 million kids to be exact and 5 million of those are under the age of 10. Does he think this is going to help him capture the few other kids who aren’t there yet?   

Consumer advocates are up in arms about the online safety issues and the ability to capture personal information and market to young kids.  Hello… this is already happening!  So rather than focusing on preventing Facebook  for kids under 13, let’s focus on the more important point – getting parents to understand internet safety and the ramifications of not monitoring at home what their kids are doing online.

It didn’t surprise me to learn that, according to a survey by Microsoft, 36% of parents know that their child who is under 13 is already on Facebook.  It seems they don’t care about sites like Facebook for kids but they should.  Girls as young as 12 are sending sexually explicit photos, older men are posing as young boys to lure in girls and bullies are attacking their victims continuously.  Most parents are oblivious to all of this.   

To be fair, it’s not just Facebook.  Recently a 12 year-old Kansas girl was kidnapped by a 20 year-old she met online while playing Worlds of Warcraft.  The relationship progressed to the point that she was sending sexually explicit photos of herself to him.  First of all, what was a 12 year-old doing playing Worlds of Warcraft?  Where were her parents?!

While Facebook might be trying to gain more audience share from younger kids, let’s stop blaming Mark Zuckerberg for preying on them and start talking to our kids – who are already on Facebook – about appropriate behavior and online safety for kids.

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