Facebook, MySpace and Bebo: Children Ignoring Age Limits

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A survey which was recently carried out by Ofcom has highlighted that 25% of the UK’s 8-12 year olds ignore social networking websites age limits, despite Facebook, MySpace and Bebo stating that users must be at least 13 years old.

Quite shockingly some parents were completely unaware as to what children were getting up to on these sites, however the majority (83 per cent) said they new what their children were doing.

One positive thing that came from this survey showed just how clued up some of this 8-12 year olds were, this is because 83 per cent of children had set the recommend privacy settings on their social profiles, however just 4 per cent of children had set their profiles as completely private.

Ofcom also suggested that in October 2009 37 per cent of the UK’s 5-7 year olds had visited Facebook, however it is unclear as to just how many of these has Facebook profiles.

The main reason for the age limits on social networking sites has a a lot to do with reducing the risks of predators using sites to gaining contact with minors, therefore many believe that sites should do more to ensure under 13 year olds cannot sign-up, what do you think?

Source: Guardian