Responding to the findings of trade body ASSOCHAM, that conducted a survey among children and parents across various tier-I and II cities, a number of parent said despite the Delhi High Court barring children below the age of 13 from using Facebook, they remained favourably inclined towards giving their children access to Facebook as also other social networking sites.
The father of a nine-year-old active member of social networking sites said “preventing misuse was the key”.
He added that it was unreasonable to expect that in this day and age, when the flow of information is so vast, children can live in isolation.
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“My daughter had been using Facebook since she was six. She plays games, uses the platform for learning and networking with people, including some from her own age. Understanding the risks of the impressionable age that she is, I made sure that I told her about the possible areas where she should not venture. As of today, she uses Facebook even in my absence,” he said.
A Ghaziabad resident said children are learning computers at school and know the basics of Internet from a very early age.
She added that if one had to misuse the Internet, even search engines like Google were not safe.
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Citing the example of her own 10-year-old son, she said educating children about what is right and what isn’t is far more effective than restrictions or surveillance.
Both admitted that they introduced their children to Facebook and even “helped” them re-join after the social networking site detected and blocked their accounts.
So what takes children to Facebook? The study found that children are most likely to post an image or video of themselves online. Facebook, it said, was the most preferred social networking website for children between the ages of 8 and 13 years. Other popular sites include Flickr.com, Google+, Pinterest and Snapchat.