Children flock to social networks
“More than a quarter of eight to 11-year-olds who are online in the UK have a profile on a social network, research shows.”
Form the BBC a lengthy article on the continued rise of social networking. There’s some very interesting stats, for example:
* 49% of children 8-17 have an online profile
* 22% of 16+ have an online profile
* On average adults have profiles on 1.6 sites
* 63% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Bebo
* 37% of 8 to 17-year-olds with profile use MySpace
* 18% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Facebook
* 59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends
* 16% of parents do not know if their child’s profile is visible to all
* 33% of parents say they set no rules for their children’s use of social networks
* 43% of children say their parents set no rules for use of social networks
The survey performed by Ofcom was based on a sample consisting of 5000 adults and 3000 children.
Sadly the rest of the article overly concentrates on the risks involved with children having a presence on a social networking site. Obviously there are concerns but would a balanced approach in which the benefits of social networking would have been nice . For instance they cite “59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends” - well why not? Social networking allows you to make contact and connect with people who are into the same stuff as yourself. It’s not all bad.
Anyway apparently the Home Office has been working with social networking firms and is expected to publish a set of guidelines for the sites around best practice, security and privacy on Friday. Could be interesting.
View the article here
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
April 10th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
The interesting thing about Facebook’s current privacy debate is the majority of those who are offended happen to be in the 30+ demographic.
The majority of teens can care less about their privacy on social networks. Adult segment is by nature and habit much more in tune with their identity both online and offline.
If your interested I’ve written a post at fuegonation.com/blog addressing the interesting dilemma of guarding adult privacy on social networks.
Hope this helps Andrew!
Best,
Brogan
April 14th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Great blog. Although that means I now have to add yet another blog to the growing list….I never get any work done!