Kids & Social Networks-Quite A Choice
To some adults, social media cruising can be fun and even professionally helpful making contacts in our chosen industry. To others, it’s something else to keep track of and even brings a sense of guilt for delinquent responses to others. But it seems to be spreading to a younger and younger crowd, especially preteens.
Estimates say 7.5 million children under 13 years of age that have lied about their age to open a Facebook account.
A lot of this ,of course , is the result of the number of kids who have been allowed to have mobile devices like cell phones. 29% of all children surveyed in an IpsosCT LMX Family Study have an account on a social network site. There is a summary here. Facebook is by far the site of choice with Twitter trailing distantly behind but making up some ground among older teens. That possibly to avoid such a close watch from parents.
So what are they doing when they hop on their favorite site? The top three activities are actually within a few percentage points of one another. Just “looking” at what others are writing, playing games or “liking” things like pictures or opinions are the top ones. Also high up there were posting updates and posting pictures (worthy of keeping an eye on) and searching for videos or music. Keep in mind they’re very possibly doing one or more of these activities at a time.
Social networking among young kids is a growing trend that, while parents acknowledge the dangers, are being allowed. Denying your child something like social networking could result in a rebellious backlash and perception of dictatorship, but if there is a recent track record of irresponsibility it may take calmly laying out the reasons for denial and chance for rebuilding trust with new behavior. However you handle it, there’s good reason for the old foreign policy phrase we use to hear among diplomats…”Trust, But Verify” when it comes to kids and their social media.
