Age Verification on Social Networking Sites

Follow membership restrictions- It is observed that despite social networking websites state minimum age restrictions most of the children have a membership account for these sites at very early age. For e.g. for Facebook or skype account registration the child needs to be minimum 13-years-old. But children aged 8-11 also have these accounts.

Even with the dangerous developments in social media over the past several years, many parents have chosen to allow their children to use these sites despite age restrictions. There are three reasons to argue for age restrictions on social media sites: lack of supervision by parents, targeting of children by pedophiles, and the prevalence of children falsifying their age. The ability of pedophiles to conceivably target children with social media proves that this is an issue that parents need to examine so that they may better protect their children. The threat from pedophiles causes an enormous problem for millions of children on social media sites. Unfortunately, Western Daily Press states that “Pedophiles can get away with grooming young teenagers on social media sites.” My essay will argue that age restrictions need to be in place, and additional regulations should ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools required to supervise underage children 's use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Quoting from Business Wire, “three out of four parents feel that social network sites are not protecting children.” According to Irish Independent, “four out of ten children falsify their age” when using social media. I will also argue that additional research on this topic can be used to raise the awareness of parents, and can also help to alert the children themselves to the danger. My essay will also examine questions, such as: How can social media sites protect

In the adaptive environment of technology and social media, quantifying exact usage of social media by adolescents remains fluid. However, the following statistics are staggering when considering the implications, 7.5 million children under the ‘required’ age of 13 have Facebook accounts, despite the terms of service agreement set forth by the social media network. In addition, on average, 11-18 year-olds spend 11 hours a day exposed to electronic media. (Shapiro)

Every 4 out of 5 minors do not utilize privacy settings on their social media. Meaning their accounts are completely open to the public and entirely accessible to complete strangers. It is a very taboo topic to talk about but sex offenders can be stalking and waiting on any minor social media. Many minors tend to share anything and close to everything about their lives on their social media. Due to this fact most of them do not apply privacy settings whilst oversharing and posting personal information, giving enormous amounts of access to these sexual predators, therefore putting these minors at great risk. Although , there are some minors that use social media appropriately and properly. But, even those few Instagram accounts or tumblr blogs that belong to minors do seem to be used exactly the way they should be, they still aren’t being smart. There are famous blogs and youtube channels belonging to minors that are plastered all over the internet. These minors are not being completely safe. They are sharing and posting some very personal information to their 24K followers with no regard to practicing safety at

On April 21, 2000, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has come into effect[3]. This law states that no information about children under the age of 13 may be collected without prior parents’ consent[4]. Theoretically, the law only allows the data to be used as described to the parent. In practice, however, it does not prevent the operator (i.e. the collector of the information) from using the data in any way they like – so long as they mention the way of using the data. The reason for that is that many parents do not read the agreement, and in some instances, the child accessing the website is asked whether they have their parents’ permission, to which they just answer “yes” without actually checking in with their parent or legal guardian. It is partially due to those reasons that some companies have started overcompensating for the law; for instance, AOL has disabled accounts for all users that have specified that they are less than 13 years of age[5]. Currently, the service is “restricted” to 13-and-over users, which, as already

Checking the news, keeping up with friends, and sharing quips of witty posts of a hundred and forty characters or less are the normal things for anybody to do while using a social media network. With ages ranging from the very young to the old, therein lies an assimilation of individuals whose information, location, and almost anything else are within their profile, just far enough away to keep the average stalker at bay, but close enough for a person with immoral intents to reach out and simply snatch. As the article, “Social Networking” observes, “…as Internet socializing grows, so do fears that the practice exposes the vulnerable – especially young people – to sexual predators” (627). Sexual predators are not the only people prowling around the Internet, for the range of criminals run the gamut, from potential murderers to vicious kidnappers, with their greatest weapon being something nearly everyone has access to in this modern era. Thus, through social media platforms, alone, these websites contain the information of millions upon millions of unique individuals, where, sometimes, it is as simple as scrolling down to select someone to hack into next. Often enough, these Internet forums are places where even a high school kid can do some damage, but not in the form of using personal information for selfish

When it comes to teens using the Internet and social media applications, there are many opinions people have in regards to security, privacy, and addiction for these luxuries. It seems that every day, I see news articles, blogs, and other posts about teens and the way they use the Internet. Mainly, the concern that parents need to have in order to protect their children from being personally identified or having an addiction to apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. When reading this book, I found that this whole concept of teens using this type of network goes deeper than people may think.

On these sites, kids may become targets of online predators. To make a profile, you need no proof of identity. That’s why even if sites have age restrictions, like Facebooks minimum age of 13 to join, kids still create accounts. Therefore, anyone can claim to be anyone, and most people won’t know the difference, especially minors. This issue is significant enough that a TV show, Catfish, was created to tell the stories. In general, kids are naïve to dangerous pedophiles who can easily acquire personal information from their accounts and posts. According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, Volume 47, 2010, “In 82% of online sex crimes against minors, the offender used the victim’s social networking site to gain information about the victim’s likes and dislikes,” and,”65% of online sex offenders used the victim’s social networking site to gain home and school information about the

Fitzpatrick states that over the past few years, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have all become abruptly popular. Adults find the social networking sites benign, but for children, it opens up the door to more dangers such as bullying, and online child predators who have made the internet their hunting ground. Fitzpatrick has also gathered information that in 2003 approximately 200,000 MySpace accounts were deleted because they were to be marked sexual predators. (Fitzpatrick)

Currently, The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prevents children and preteens under thirteen from using social media. This law took action in April of 2000. Things have changed and so should this law. At first, when social media was new, people were excited about the new thing and didn’t think about consequences. Now, preteens

Children are more likely to be found on a technological device that can access the Internet than outside being physically active. While in many cases, they are knowledgeable online users, children are still at risk when using the Internet. Their right to privacy online is endangered, especially when online businesses target children as consumers. Thus, an increased threat of children’s personal data collection exists.

89% of teens 13 to 17 are on social media. Bridge should parents be worried about their kids on social media.There needs to be a age restrictions on social media because kids could be cyberbullied without parents knowing also posting their personal

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have exploded in recent years and young surfers in particular have become ardent fans of this dynamic and high-tech way to connect with the wider world around them, communicating with friends and hooking up with like-minded people. But as with everything in the virtual world, parents do need to understand how their children are interacting on social networking sites, and be sure their children know what to do if they have experience a bad or dangerous situation.

Just as there are positive effects of social media, there are also negative effects as well. False connections are often made on SNS. Ninety percent of students have Facebook which is constructed to be socially shared with any user. It may seem obvious that users of social networking cannot stray far from reality from his or her online identity, although the users can depict what he or she wishes to display (Moreno et al. 452). There are many young teenagers on social networking websites posting true personal information, but there are also many young teenagers who false information. In fact, many young users of social networking, especially boys, give false information (Moreno et al. 251). Manipulation can occur in order for young users to join that network. Many times younger users have to lie about his or her age which is not always approved by his or her parents (Moreno et al. 253). A survey was done from children ranging from eight years old to twelve years old to provide the results that those who lied about their age did so within a four year range of their actual age. Thus, they knew they had to use false information, so they provided it with care (Moreno et al. 256). Because of the easiness to create an account falsely, it also makes it simpler to deceive one another. Deception is used to attack another user potentially causing upsetting consequences. The deception taking place online from networking is typically used to mislead others (Tsikerdekis and

Social networking establishments like Facebook and Myspace have blowup in latest years and early surfers in particular have grown into devoted fans of this active and advanced way to bond with the comprehensive world around them, interactive with friends and joining up with compatible people. But as using everything in the computer-generated domain, parents do need to recognize in what way their children are cooperating on common networking spots, and be certain their kids be familiar with what to make sure of if they have knowledge a foul or unsafe circumstances. Children should not be online without supervision due to fear of privacy, bullying and inappropriate behavior like sexting. Privacy is at all times a worry for any message