Facebook, founded
in 2004 by M. Zuckerberg, was initially directed to Harvard’s students only;
however, nowadays everyone has access to it. We all know what this website is
about, how it works, how to use it and most of us have a Facebook account.
Facebook states that kids under the age of 13
are not allowed to have an account, but is not so difficult to lie about age on
the website. Moreover, parents do not always allow their children to have FB
accounts, yet kids can dive into FB on their own.
The
benefits of using the site seem to be not few compared to the adverse consequences
of it: it improves children’s social skills by allowing them to have contact
with other people, it gives them the chance to express themselves, it provides
them online social media skills, it helps them to communicate with their classmates
and discuss school work.
The
disadvantages, on the other hand refer to bullying, addiction to the website, an
opened door to other websites not appropriate for teens or kids, and fake
accounts with pedophiles behind them. Teenagers do not always know to differentiate
right from wrong and kids under 13, or even 14, are exposed to great dangers
they don’t even imagine. I think it’s not FB the problem, but an “age” one: FB
is not necessary a bad thing, but it is when it's used by kids who have no idea what they
are doing.
So, if you had a child under 13, would you let him/her have a FB account?
