Social networking and children

A survey led by the European Commission, revealed that 38 percent of 9 to 12-year-olds use social networking sites, with one in five of the age group having a profile on Facebook, even though the network sets a minimum age of 13 to join.

Researchers who carried out the EU Kids Online survey of 25,000 young people across Europe say it shows that age restrictions are only partially effective and that a growing number of children are taking online risks.

A quarter of children on social networking sites have their profile set to ‘public.’ One fifth of children whose profile is public display their address and/or phone number, twice as many as for those with private profiles.

The findings raise the possibility that removing age restrictions from social network sites might be the most effective way of improving online safety as the rules have the consequence of driving kids’ social networking underground.

Elisabeth Staksrud, from the University of Oslo and one of the report’s authors comments that: "since children often lie about their age to join ‘forbidden’ sites it would be more practical to identify younger users and to target them with easy-to-use protective measures."

Among other findings, the survey shows that almost one in six 9 to 12-year-olds, and one in three 13 to 16-year-olds, has 100 or more online contacts. Around a quarter of social network users communicate online with people who have no connection to their offline lives.