Poll on Kids Under 13 Using Facebook by Turan Sahinkaya

July 31, 2011 - PRLog -- Turan Sahinkaya:  Poll on Kids Under 13 Using Facebook by Turan Sahinkaya

Turan Sahinkaya attended a meeting last week when a fellow father revealed to him that he was searching through Facebook and found his daughter on the popular social networking site without his knowledge or permission. What was even more astonishing to learn was that his daughter is only SEVEN!

So Turan took a poll that night and discovered that out of 100 parents, 72 had knowledge that their children were using Facebook, 12 admitted that their children using Facebook were 13 or younger, and 16 parents said they were unsure but wouldn’t be surprised if their young children were on Facebook without their knowledge. Astonishing statistics!

This started a discussion among those parents as to whether it’s right or wrong to have kids under 13 on Facebook. Although the social media site requires users to be at least 13 years old, there is no true way to check the ages of all the kids signing up and most understand that it’s common knowledge that pre-teens are on the site in droves.

The issue of kids joining social networking sites is being discussed in many households with kids at younger and younger ages as they continue invading these sites like ants at a picnic. And Facebook seems to have become another young person’s milestone along with attending the first boy-girl dance. But since Facebook's own rule is you have to be 13 to join, Turan Sahinkaya questions the fact that in a sense we are condoning our children under 13 to break the rules when we work so hard to try and instill in them the fact that rules should not be broken.

Turan Sahinkaya says that there are two sides of the coin from a parent’s perspective and it’s a debate among moms and dads as to whether to allow their children to break the rules and use Facebook, among other social media sites. Many parents Turan spoke with think allowing kids under age 13 on Facebook is a bad idea. For example, they worry about kids being bullied or meeting someone who isn’t who they claim to be.  While on the other side, many parents think it’s a great way to connect with friends and see no harm in their young children using the site.

Let’s face it; social networking is slowly taking over the world and it's unquestionably having an impact on parenting. We're now sharing our most intimate thoughts, our plans for the weekend, our likes and dislikes, and our personal photos online for all (of our friends, and potentially friends of our friends on Facebook) to see. Our children go there to talk, laugh, share their private feelings – all the things they once did with us, their parents, they now do with their 500 "friends" instead.

Facebook has certainly become a challenge for us 21st-century parents and it isn’t going to get any easier. Parents have to decide if they want their child on a social networking site and if so, at what age? We then have to help them avoid possible dangerous online situations. That’s all we need – yet one more challenge to being a parent!

Turan Sahinkaya understands that we are living in a fast-paced, technologically-advanced new society and we all know that it’s not easy raising children in that environment. His advice to other parents is to understand that while your kids may know more than you do about Facebook, you know more about life and what’s best for them. So as the parent you need to set rules and enforce them. If your child has a gripe about it, well, you can probably hear all about it on their Facebook page!

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