Should Kids get on to Facebook and Twitter?

Role of Facebook & Twitter in society

MELBOURNE: Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are making teen web surfers dumber, says a study of Australian parents.

New cyber-safety research commissioned by Telstra also revealed that parents believe the sites are affecting their kids' health and wellbeing.

The research revealed that 65 per cent of parents with children using social media say it distracts them from their homework, contributing to lethargic learning.

A quarter of parents say their tech-savvy teens spend more than seven hours a week connecting with friends, while less than 40 per cent fear the behaviour is affecting their children's wellbeing.

Cyber safety expert Dr Martyn Wild said parents were often unaware of what their children were doing online.

"The answer is not turning off internet access, rather it's about implementing simple behavioural changes in your children and setting realistic expectations about their use of the internet," News.com.au quoted Dr Wild as saying.

He said setting "house rules" for internet use such as placing computers in a common area and setting time restrictions on social network use helped keep teens focused on their studies.

The research, conducted by Newspoll, revealed 84 per cent of 14 to 17-year-olds use a social network and almost half of 10 to 13-year-olds use sites such as Facebook.

a top neuroscientist of the Oxford University warns about the lifelong effects of too much social networking:

• Facebook and other networking sites “are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a short attention span and live for the moment”. There is hardly any concentration skills required in participating in these social networking sites, and these train the brain to have poor attention span.
• Kids are detracted from learning to communicate in the real world. There are reports from teachers that social networking is affecting kids’ comprehension levels. Also, if kids communicate primarily through the screen they do not learn the subtleties of real life communication - such as body language, tone of voice, and subconsciously sensing the molecules that other people release.
• Social networking sites make kids more self-centered. Since Facebook and other sites give kids their own page which is about them, it leads some vulnerable kids to think that everything revolves around them, a precursor for emotional problems in their later life. This might also result in inability to empathize.
• These sites make kids prone to sensationalism.
Other educators also note the following:

• * For kids and teens in social networks, there are no spelling and grammar rules. In fact it is cool to misspell and not make sense. Less sophisticated children will find it hard to differentiate between social networking communication and real world communication. In fact many teachers are complaining that social networking communication with misspellings and lack of grammar are seeping through student’s school writings.
• Screen relationships detract from spending time in real life relationships.
• Social networks are fertile grounds for bad influencers and anonymous venoms and hunting grounds for deviants and other predators.
GOOD EFFECTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING ON KIDS

On the other hand, other experts like the MacArthur Foundation see it differently. They claim that kids and teens are developing important technical and social skills online in ways that adults do not understand or value:

• Mizuko Ito of the University of California states that “spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age”. Kids are learning basic social and technical skills to fully participate in modern society. Kids learn to adapt to permanent and public socializing and managing elaborate network of friends and acquaintances.
• Social networking makes kids more peer-based. Young people are motivated to learn from their peers online. They interact and receive feedback from one another. They are motivated to learn more from each other than from adults. Teachers and adults are no longer the only sources of knowledge.
• It makes kids more networked than ever. It is easier for kids to make friends with people all over the world, most of whom they will never ever meet without these technological advances.
• Kids communicate and interact more than ever.
• Social networks actually make kids more relationship-oriented, considerate, and emphatic. Kids remember people’s birthday and greet them. They comment on pictures, videos and status of their friends. They create longer term friendships by being in touch online even when friends are no longer physically meeting.
HOW PARENTS CAN MAKE THE MOST OF KIDS SOCIAL NETWORKING

• Encourage your kid to spend more time – considerably more time – in actual communication than “social networking communication”.
• Suggest to your kid to take advantage of social networking to enhance learning, to collaborate with fellow students, not just for “hanging out” and spewing nonsense. Teach your kid to differentiate between what has substance, and what is mere trash.
• If possible, supervise your kid’s online activity to protect him from online predators and other dangers.
• Emphasize to your kids the difference between writing and spelling for social networking and real world writing.
• As in everything, use social networking in moderation. It cannot take the place of real-life relationships and other worthwhile pursuits like reading books and sports.

Facebook does not permit children under 13 to use their services. Does that mean you should stop your kid from trying?

Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to have a Facebook account. In fact, according to Facebook, they aren’t even allowed to access the website. Obviously, there are some holes in the system. It’s not as though Facebook can stop your 10 year old from viewing their website. In all honesty, Facebook can’t even stop your child from creating an account. Any kid with a little knowhow can figure out how to open an account by faking the year of their birth.
So, as a parent, what do you do when your preteen asks if they can open a Facebook account? Or, if you discover your kid has already registered using a false date of birth, what actions should you take, if any?

Though I won’t go as far as saying that I allow my 12 year old to use Facebook – smiles and waves at the Facebook police – I can say that I see a lot of preteens doing just that. Is it such a bad thing? Sure, there’s a lot of stuff on Facebook that wouldn’t be appropriate for young eyes, but you can find just as inappropriate content by doing something as innocent as a Google Image search (without the proper filters on). It all comes down to education and monitoring.
What do you think? Do you allow your preteen to use Facebook? If so, do you feel guilty about breaking the rules and, essentially, feel like you’re teaching your kids that it’s okay to go against policies sometimes, so long as “everyone else” is doing it? Or are you a parent that absolutely will not allow your child to open a Facebook account until they’re 13 and feel that any parent who does is irresponsible?

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