Community Corner
Kids on Facebook: Teaching Tool or Learning the Hard Way?
The founder of Facebook wants to officially open up his social network to kids under 13. Stats show more than 7 million already have Facebook pages.
Should your first-grader have a Facebook page?
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg thinks so, and he's launching a campaign to open the pages of Facebook to tweens and younger children. He says social media is an educational tool. But some think welcoming young children who haven’t had time to hone judgment skills is a dangerous proposition.
“In the future, software and technology will enable people to learn a lot from their fellow students,” Zuckerberg said at a NewSchools Summit in California.
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Problem is, they may learn the hard way. Who knows what kids will post before they learn about boundaries and privacy?
Maybe they’ll work on writing skills by providing vivid accounts of family quarrels. Could be they’ll sharpen multimedia skills with videos of Fifi and Fido “playing." Let's explore the mysteries of biology with photos of baby brother’s – what is that, anyway? Now kids can have fun with math by typing in credit card numbers.
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With cyber-bullying taking up ever-growing chunks of time at school, do we really want to open up a whole new market for online oppressors and predators?
Under current regulations, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Web barons who gather information about a user can’t grant access to anyone under the age of 13. That way, kids can’t broadcast their personal information to anyone who’s asking.
It doesn’t work very well. Recent research shows as many as 7.5 million kids under 13 already have Facebook friends and profiles. Zuckerberg has no problem with that, he says. In fact, he’s “not liking” the law.
“That will be a fight we take on at some point," he said last week. "My philosophy is that for education, you need to start at a really, really young age. Because of the restrictions, we haven’t even begun this learning process. ... If they’re lifted, then we’d start to learn what works. We’d take a lot of precautions to make sure that they (children) are safe.”
So, what do you think? Does your young son or daughter have a Facebook page? Would you allow it? Do you monitor it closely? Do you think there are valid and valuable skills that kids can learn through social media outlets like Facebook?
