Who's Watching the Children?

There's been a lot of talk lately about children on Facebook and how to protect them. With Facebook's announcement that they may open the site up to pre-teens, a flurry of discussion was launched about how to protect children online. This is clearly a child-rearing challenge of modern times. When I was young - kids themselves were the technology threat when we picked up a telephone and made prank phone calls. As I mentioned in an earlier post, raising my kids with one landline and dial-up internet service, provided protection by limiting the amount of time my kids could spend online. Now with mobile devices and computers as the centerpiece of interpersonal communication, the challenges have become more difficult to manage.

I imagine that for all time, parents have wrestled with the challenges of finding the balance between being too permissive or too restrictive. I'm sure most, like myself, have felt the wrath of the "Bobby's parents said he can..." retort, accusingly pointing out there's something wrong with my logic. On the many occasions that exchange happened at my house, it always left me wondering what Bobby's parents were thinking. Even though I was clearly outnumbered, I'd stick to my decision much to the dismay of my unhappy children. I always felt that's what my role was - to make the best decisions for my children - whether they were going to like it or not.

Of the 900+ million Facebook subscribers, it is said that more than 7.5 million are children under age 13 with 5 million of them under age 10. Facebook clearly states in it's terms of service that subscribers must be a minimum age of 13. So how did 7.5 million children slip through the cracks? Quite simply, they lied about their age. And in many cases, they had the assistance of their parents to do it too. Now when you find yourself in this situation being challenged by your charmingly naive 10 year old who cries out that everybody else's parents think it's okay to have a Facebook page - your explanation that dishonesty is never a good decision won't provide much satisfaction for anyone.

The recent Fox News article Judge Upholds Indiana Facebook Ban for Sex Offenders addresses the complexities of protecting children online while balancing the civil rights of sex offenders who have been deemed to no longer be a threat. I truly am not familiar with the difficulties of monitoring sex offender's whereabouts and activities but I do question how easy that would be to do in the virtual world. Rather than identify themselves as a convicted offender while online, or refrain from Facebook participation altogether - couldn't they just simply make up a different name and identity? If Facebook cannot tell when a pre-teen child or his parent is lying, how will it be able to identify and block a sex offender who does the same? And at that point is it more Facebook's responsibility to protect the children than the parents? Though I understand the objectives, I question how effective it will really be to enact laws in an attempt to protect our vulnerable children online. Most laws will only come into play after a crime has been committed - and that is too late.
 
Protecting children from predators is not a new challenge. Technology didn't create the problem and won't resolve it either. Before we turn to our lawmakers, courts and society to protect our children - we must provide a solid level of security and protection at home. Old-fashioned parenting techniques still come into play: talk with your kids, know who they interact with, stay up-to-date on what they are involved in and don't be afraid to say no to things you're uncomfortable with - even if Bobby's parents or Mark Zuckerberg said it's okay.  

What do you think is the appropriate minimum age for kids on Facebook? What can and should be done to protect children from predators while online?

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