As a parent, are you aware or do you care that there is an age restriction to Facebook? Are you also aware of the reasons why Facebook has this restriction? Many parents think it is because of the possibilities of perverts getting to your child, or that Facebook is a more of an adult social media site. Most parents, including myself will simple tell you that they really don't know why Facebook has an age restriction.
The real reason kids under the age of 13 are not allowed on Facebook is because of privacy protection. You see, back in 1998 U.S. Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Act to require any commercial website to get parental permission before collecting personal information on anybody under the age of 13. The cost to get that permission for children under the age of 13 would be staggering for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or any other social media. So to simplify, these sites restrict users under the age of 13 in using them.
Now we all know as a parent the enormous amount of pressure our children can put on us when they want something. Facebook is one of those items that every teenager feels they need to be on. However, allowing your child under the age of 13 to lie and join Facebook allows them to lose the protections the government put into place to protect them.
What is interesting is that Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social media sites go to extreme measures to make sure that they are in compliance. Some reports have Facebook removing over 20,000 kids a day who are under the age of 13. So why do parents who know better still allow their children under the age of 13 to join Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or any other social media website? The answer is pretty much what you would expect. Many parents just don't supervise their children when they go online to social sites. Still other parents think that their child is mature enough even under the age of 13 to use these social sites to meet their peers.
As a parent of teenagers, Facebook has been an issue I have had to deal with. According to a lot of studies, I am in the minority as far as supervising my kids while they engage in social media such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. My children were supervised and were not allowed to be online without adult supervision. No exceptions. On Facebook they were required to "friend me" for a time until they proved their responsibility.
Things have worked out well for us. My oldest child is now in her early twenties and works for a public relations firm as their social media guru. The lessons she learned about responsibilities while online have given her the guidance to excel at her profession. It is great that government has placed certain restrictions to help protect our children from the evil that online can be; however, it is our responsibility as parents to raise our children. That includes being involved in their online activities.
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