Kids on Facebook: Annoyance or Serious Problem?

We had an interesting discussion in class last week about underage users violating Facebook’s terms of service. To create a Facebook profile you must be at least 13 years of age, but it seems that many underage users are finding their way onto the site. There are two sides of this issue that I would like to discuss: how I’m personally effected by it and how underage users may be effected by it.

Viewing this issue strictly from my own personal experience I would say this “issue” is really a non-issue. I don’t know anyone in my life who is underage who also has a Facebook profile. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever even stumbled upon an underage profile. Granted, there’s no way of verifying whether or not a person is being truthful about their age on Facebook, but I haven’t seen any profile pictures of anyone looking younger than 13. So what are my thoughts on it? “Meh.” I’m not one to obsess over Facebook so I don’t personally care whether or not underage users are using the service. I don’t think children should be using Facebook at such a young age, but then again that isn’t my issue to deal with.

Now, as I said at the beginning of this post I want to try to view this issue from another viewpoint other than my own since I never really gave the issue much thought at all before we discussed it in class. One group of people who might have an issue with underage Facebook users would be parents. One argument that I could see them bringing up is that children at that age simply cannot comprehend the possible danger that they put themselves in by creating an underage profile. Children might be susceptible to online predators that look for vulnerable kids to take advantage of. Children also don’t realize the importance of online privacy.

While these are all perfectly valid points to bring up, the problem is that these issues apply to the internet as a whole, not just Facebook. It is the responsibility of the parents to monitor their children’s internet use. It is also their responsibility to teach their kids proper internet safety and ensure they don’t talk to strangers. So while underage Facebook users are an issue, I believe the lack of parental involvement in a child’s internet use is a bigger problem. It shouldn’t be a site’s responsibility to protect children. That is and always will be in the hands of the parents.