Facebook Under-13 Plan: Really worries parenting experts

Social networking giant Facebook is really going after the youth market. Yes, it’s no more a rumor now.

After having heard for past few weeks about the Facebook plans for expanding its reach to include children under 13, the report published in Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Facebook is actively testing options to create a safe, child-friendly space on the site.

According to details; Facebook may allow kids under 13 to create an account under parental supervision. Parents would be able to link their accounts to their children's and control friend requests and third-party applications. The under-13 features could enable Facebook and its partners to charge parents for games and other entertainment accessed by their children.

Facebook currently bans users under the age of 13, although officials admit that of the 900 million users worldwide, there are an estimated 7.5 million kids under 13 already using the popular social media site by lying about their age when they register. But why make it easier to the under-13 crowd to get access to Facebook?

There are some mix views from the masses about Facebook’s new plans to let children under 13 using an extended version of Facebook. Some of the parenting experts have deemed it totally unnecessary to allow children under 13 to use Facebook whether independently or under the parents’ accounts.

James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media - an advocacy organization for kids and media – responded to Facebook’s under-13 plans saying; there are enormous social, cognitive and development issues that have to be considered (when dealing with social media and kids) and Facebook has no expertise in that area. And there are currently enormous privacy concerns regarding the teens who already use it and the preteens who sneak on. Why on earth would we suddenly turn over our 8-year-olds to them while they haven't addressed very well many of those issues yet? It doesn't make sense.

SOURCE:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-06-04/facebook-question-answer/55386056/1

Wall Street Journal