It seems as if Facebook has decided on an, ’If you can’t beat them, join them, attitude’.
It was annouced on June 4, this week that Facebook are working on a new “child platform”. It would allow children under the age of 13 to have a Facebook account and give parents more control over their account.
Some of the proposed changes of the new child friendly platform:
• Links the child’s account to their parents’
• Allows parents to decide who/what their child can “like”
• Allows parents to decide which apps they can use and charges parents for these apps if applicable (which allows parents to manage the entertainment spending)
• Proposes that friending people will be monitored by parents
I am interested in your thoughts about this? Should children of under 13 be encouraged to enter an online social world? Is it important for young children to become accustom to the real social world first?
Will Facebook for kids put a stop to cyber bullying – Phoenix buzz | Examiner.com.
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As with so many things these days there are enough reasons as to why this should not happen BUT due to our ‘instantly gratified society’, it will probably still go ahead. I realise that this does sound a little defeatest and I do not mean to be. However, as Michael Carr-Gregg mentioned at the Positives Schools Conference in Brisbane recently; we are allowing the development stage of childhood to be compressed. This will not stop cyberbullying, it will just create a situation that sees the adults of this world letting our kids down….again. Thank goodness though for the great parents and teachers out there that will do all that they can to keep ‘childhood alive’.