Facebook Is Coming For Your Children

reply to post by Conciliatore


As Caledonia stated not all children are fortunate enough to be brought up in a home where their parents actually care and monitor what they do, its these children that need protecting, not the ones whose parents already police what activities they do, as i stated no way on this earth my child will get access to FB, but what about the parents who couldn't give a hoot, what happens to their children, images used by predators, predators befriending them, i shudder to think.

I wish parents would actually start being parents and raising intelligent children, instead of sheltered little idiots that hook up with predators online.

When I was that age we had the internet, although not nearly as advanced as today, but I had free reign to do as I pleased. One thing, I never told people my age, and if someone tried to meet up with me, I just ignored them. Is it really that hard?

Parents don't seem to be raising kids that can actually take their well being into their own hands. Yes, children need to be protected, but it's a lot easier to have a child consider their own safety than having to monitor them 24 hours a day. When I was a kid I knew "hey, if I get hit by a car, that's really going to hurt!" or " hey, if I get kidnapped, it would probably really suck!" These are not complex concepts.

Are kids getting dumber these days or something? I don't understand the mentality of these fools that hookup with people on the internet at that age. Did their parents never tell them "People might try to kidnap you" because they didn't want to scare them or something? I just don't get it.

reply to post by Mactire


Agreed.

Though where I'm from, people are creating facebook pages for their young children. Not only is it creepy but it's irresponsible parenting.

Originally posted by guessing
As responsible parents it is our duty to protect our children in the best way we can.

i do not see a problem with facebook evolving to this.

i see a problem with incompetent parenting peroid.

Its far easier to pass the buck.. blame your tools etc, then it is to actually take the responsible approach.

education starts at home.

I think the "parents" ARE the problem !

in many cases I would say the "parents" have themselves been past victims of the Ritalin/Adderall escapades.

add the food additives for the past 25 or 30 years, and you can see the results are right on target.

but after all, the food and drug companies have to make money too ....... right?

"education" is very very limited when the "student" is drug induced and food-gooffy !

FB is used today as a data collector and label-maker .. almost like a self-contained IQ test for dumbies !

this is the precursor to the gov's online ID system.

the gov ID system will be fodder for the thriving ID theft "business" AND...AND the ID theft "protection and insurance" rackets.

FB is a mirror image of the quality of parenting (and "governing") today !

it's a far cry from the old days of pool halls and bowling alleys !

yes, education starts at home .... if we can call it "home" !

FB is OK for people that have some sense of responsibility and self-security....

BUT, buyer beware !

Originally posted by James1982
Are kids getting dumber these days or something?

No.

Kids don't listen to their parents, that's the problem.
Starting at a young age, they think they're already adults.
My experiences in chatrooms and other communities are pretty grim. It actually shocked me to see so many 14-16 year old girls with already 1 or 2 children. Others are actually whoring out themselves - to older guys - they do it for the money. They show themselves naked on webcam and all kinds of sick stuff.
The same way i always get asked from younger boys if i would like to have sex with them. The youngest one was 12. It makes me sick. It's disgusting.

I once talked to a pregnant 14 year old girl. She said, she wanted a child. After i said that she's way too young for that, she actually said "I'm 14 that's old enough and i'm even more intelligent than some adults". I just didn't know what to say, so i wished her lots of fun in her destroyed future.

Back when i was at the age, i was online, i was also asked about sex and all the stuff but i ignored it. It never even occured to me, to have sex with some sick, disgusting old man for money - nobody of my friends thought about something like that.

It would be the best if those kids get monitored at chatrooms or communites. See what they write, what they do and take measures. But i guess at big sites like Facebook with several hundred million users, that's not possible (and then there's the fake age thing). According to some stats, there are already around 7,5 million kids under 13 at Facebook. I don't think there's anything to do against that.

Even if parents monitor their kids, they will find ways to hide what they're doing

reply to post by burntheships


Kids do NOT belong on FB period!

I guess the majority forget how and why FB was created. It wasn't created under the best circumstances and it was meant for college kids, not tweens!

IMO I don't think teens belong on there either. Look at all the problems there are with FB and teens.

This is so wrong and I would never let my kid have a FB.

I have friends who let their kids who are under 13 have one and I can't believe they allow it. One didn't even know her kid posted she was 16 and she is 9! I saw it and told her, it just shows they don't care as long as they are out of the parents hair it is ok.

I see it all the time. FB, video games and other social sites are the new babysitter.

reply to post by dreamingawake


This must have some very sinister roots, as I doubt there is an adult online who has not heard of
interenet predators.

I mean, this is why sex offenders are not allowed to visit children at school, hang out near schools,
or playgrounds.




And look, now facebook is hiring lobbyists to go international.

www.tgdaily.com...

And this is not just about the possibility of children being abused,
but to think that some of these predators showed up with guns to use if need be!



www.youtube.com...

Here is another video that shows even more predators, using the internet
chatting with girls as young as 12 and 14!



www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by xuenchen

this is the precursor to the gov's online ID system.

the gov ID system will be fodder for the thriving ID theft "business" AND...AND the ID theft "protection and insurance" rackets.

Exactly, this is a helgelian dialect if I have ever seen one.

Over the weekend Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made comments suggesting he wants to get younger kids using the social networking site. Zuckerberg framed Facebook as a tool to help educate children about using the internet before suggesting that COPPA, a federal law designed to protect the online privacy of children under the age of 13, is standing in the way of that goal.

The quote has drawn a fair bit of criticism online, including some from us. Much of the criticism is based on the fact that Facebook stands to profit a great deal by collecting the personal details of kids under 13. But what do the experts think? Can Facebook be a useful tool for educating kids online or not?

Experts Aren't So Sure www.pcworld.com...

I read the article. I think this is about two things. They want to open the market to younger people (those kids do grow up) and they legally cannot, because of some laws in some states i.e. CA. Since they assume these types of laws may become more prevalent and they know, (being IT people) it would be hard to stop a 13 year old from joining ( how do you prove someone is not 13?) they are simply engaged in getting Government to step in and allow access. Of course it is all about money, they simply want more eyeballs. People in internet business know that term. It is all about the eyeballs.

What is really happening with this media age we live in is that, children are simply exposed to "worldly" things at an earlier age. They simply don't have the maturity under their belt to process what this means in the real world. Anyone with kids understands the issues here. Each one is different but, they are all naive. It doesn't mean they are stupid. They simply haven't lived long enough to learn from their experiences. There indoctrination in to the world is being compressed. I simply don't see the value in that, given our current social structure in the West.


Variable

just thought I'd put this out there:

No one can contact you, or get your information from facebook, without you EXPLICITLY allowing them. The only exception to that rule is advertisers, they always get info when facebook "accidentally" "leaks" personal info.

Other than that, the child would have to ALLOW a stranger access to their facebook account, then continue to ALLOW them to harass them.

I think it's time for parents to start taking an active role in parenting again. You can't blame facebook because YOU never taught your child how to protect themselves. I never once, ever, got into some strange car as a child. Why? Because my parents did their JOB and taught me not to be an idiot.

If facebook does indeed change the age rules, then by default they have to enable some type of protection for those kids. My suggestion would be a parent account HAS to create the sub child account, and each and everything the sub account does has to be approved by the adult account.

I believe this is how the playstation network parental controls work, but I might be wrong.

what's stopping kids under 13 from joining facebook? Nothing, all they need to do is lie about their age on the signup page. There are already thousands of these kids on the site. With NO protection offered as they aren't supposed to be their.

If facebook opens signups for younger users, they have to implement some type of protection.

Facebook is only as bad as you allow it to be. For me it's great, I don't have to talk to the phone anymore, pop off a message, check my friends and family's statuses, then I'm good to go. I don't give it any information I wouldn't hand out to anyone on the street.

Facebook is about money. They don't charge for their service, so that money comes from paid apps (games) and advertising. allowing a younger segment of people on opens up new potentially advertising customers, and plenty of new income for those paid games like the zynga crap fest.

People love to fart all over facebook, yet you are still on the internet. OMFG the internet was designed and developed by the US military! OMFG the cia and NSA have deals with all the telcos to allow them to reroute and snoop ALL communications traffic, all of it.

But you are worried about a site that only provide information YOU type in?

Anyways.....

If I was a parent, I'd explain the dangers of the internet in a real, but understandable, way. I'd have my home network on lockdown, as I already do, and the kiddies wouldn't be getting to anything I didn't already approve. Obviously I can't monitor what my child does at school or at a friend's house, so I'd lay the whole guilt trip on them about trusting them, blah blah blah.

When it actually gets to the point that the kid is going to be on facebook, the next level of awareness begins. Who are all your friends? What is your password, etc etc. I do NOT need the kid to give it to me to get the password either.

reply to post by burntheships


I will not be letting my children anywhere near social networking sites until they are atleast 16 and then it will be monitored.

Lets be honest here folks. If a kid wants a facebook, there are always ways around the system. My oldest created one, and low and behold Mom found it. Guess what, I used the normal password that child uses and added me onto the friends list. (yes I am that eviiilllllll) He hasn't been on in forever, and doesn't have many friends on his list, and I am just sitting back waiting for him to 'discover' Mommy is a friend

The trick is staying step ahead of them. Kids can create an account while playing around on computers at school. But as a parent, you control the computers at home. There are all sorts of programs and parental controls one can slap onto the computer.



I'm old school, only one out of the 3 kiddos has a phone, and they do not have laptops. We have one computer, and will add a second one soon, but they will be out in the open, where Mommy can stroll by at any time.

I can only speak about my family, and how my husband and I parent.. I don't claim to have all the answers and we do try our best..and soemtimes the saying "you can't out fox a fox" is very true for parenting.

I remember being a kid, and I remember the stuff I tried to get away with.. And I am a firm believer in letting them stretch a bit, but with the full understanding that if they mess up..that privalege is taken away and trust must be reearnd.

well, don't we all know that Sucker-berg doesn't give a damn about privacy nor people, for that matter?
luckily there is US legislation that needs to be changed in order to give that drop-out what he wants.
Address the issue with your local representative (if you're in the US): let them know that you disagree with the idea that corporations can get a grip on your children.

but there's another way as well:
When the kid I have responsibility for turned 13 she wanted a profile on FB. I got an iMac that is running in the living room. The webcam has been disabled. She has a macbook pro as well, for school. I administer the machines so she can't do whatever she wants.

before she got permission to open a profile,
- we explained to her who that flaming *sshole Sucker-berg is (a moron you should never trust),
- what facebook really is about (collecting data so intelligence services can benefit from it (don't believe this? Research InQtel) and trying to make money by selling you to advertisers),
- how it can be used safely (don't buy that sh*t that you must share everything with everyone: make closed groups and tell Sucker-Berg to f*ck off when he complains about those closed groups),
- don't post images that contain information people can abuse,
- don't post personal data (tell those social media gurus to drop dead)

I mean: parents should act in a proactive way and help their children to get an understanding of the stuff that's going on, without scaring them off. We also learned her a nice mental reflex:
- every time she sees an "expert" on TV, she has to ask herself: is that person getting paid to say this? Who pays that person? Why does that TV station runs that story in the first place.

some adults near us don't like this too much, as she learned to do the same with them: whenever an adult makes a "strange" statement, she simply starts to challenge the statement. I love that girl !!

Good thing Im a vigilant parent who takes their role seriously. My kids love computers and yet there is an established rule that there is to be no social networking/online chatting until they are 14. All of our computers are in the same room and I am able to observe all of their online activities. Its a shame that there are monsters in the world who would seek to lure children into all kinds of skeevy activities but parents need to make sure that they not only educate (not frighten) their children about the dangers of online predators and the importance of maintaining privacy, but also assure them that they arent missing anything by not being able to jack in like their friends. Kids are in such a hurry to be all grown up. They dont yet realize how much it can suck.

reply to post by burntheships


I think that they need to do better on enforcing the less-than-13 restriction. I know many people younger than that age who own a Facebook.

SeraphNB

If "Anonymous" truly gives a shyte..
And they want to do something meaningful..
They can destroy facebook.

Anonymous,
Do you hear?

Are you able?

If yes, Please get to work..
If no, Please find some who can.
Thank you.

No Zuckerburger we're coming for you kid!

Down with facebook.

Originally posted by Mactire
reply to post by burntheships
Personally; I don't think anyone under the age of 18 should be allowed on a social networking site. People complain about the online hazing going on with highschoolers. Imagine the trauma of letting younger children on. Facebook makes enough money, and offers nothing educational, nor social. Leave the kids alone.

Having a status that reads: "Bad day at work. Stan is a douche", does not constitute a social development aid.

There is no need for this move.

I completely agree and have been saying this for quite some time now. Facebook, Twitter, and most social networks should be limited to 18+ year olds only. It would be different if their was a social network for kids that had TONS of parental control (do I smell a potential market here) or a social network with an emphasis on education that's strongly moderated by faculty and has some level of parental controls as well.

But Facebook should be a place for adults only. I shouldn't have to mind my tongue if I make a status update that's viewable by friends of friends and one of my friends are friended with their kids.

If Zuck had his way the entirety of Facebook would be set to public and every Joe Schmoe regardless of age would be allowed on. That is just bad news all around.

It's bad enough now that my eight year old is asking for her own blog and a Facebook account. She was very irate when I told her no Facebook until at the very least high school. My house, my rules. Where do kids these days get this social network entitlement mindset from I'll never know.

So no! Not now... Not ever. Under any conditions should anyone under 18 be allowed on Facebook.