Dear Parents,
It has come to our attention that many of our fourth and
fifth graders have illegally signed on to get their own Facebook accounts. It may be that parents are either unaware
that they are underage for such accounts or unaware that they have these
accounts (they may have set them up with the help of an older sibling while at
a friend's house). We discussed this
with the fourth and fifth grade students at a recent assembly and let them know
that a follow-up eblast would be sent to parents.
I asked Sigurd Kallhovde, aka Mr. K, to put together some
information to share with parents concerning these accounts.
Age Requirement
for Social Network Sites:Social networking sites ("SN") such as Facebook
and MySpace
are prohibited for children under 13 years of age. If a sub-13 child gives his or her real
birthday, the site refuses the account and gives the following message: "Sorry, you are ineligible to sign up".
By extension, a child under 13 with an SN account has not been truthful about
his or her age.
Here is the page where one can report underage Facebook
members:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=underage Educating your
child when they become of age:When your children are of age for SN accounts, they will
need some good training and advice on how to use these sites
appropriately. Children tend to,
unwittingly or otherwise, divulge personal information on SN sites that could
be exploited by somebody with malicious intent.
They also need to be made aware that everything somebody
posts or does on a SN site adds up and affects their reputations and may stay
on the Internet for the rest of their lives.
Employers and college admissions officers use SNs to
filter applications: One third of employers surveyed had rejected applicants
based on what they found out about them online.
What you can do to
protect your child from SN risks when they become of age: - Make sure your
child uses privacy settings. By default,
these settings are very generous in the way personal information is
distributed.
- Parents
should set up their own SN accounts and ask their child to be an
"unrestricted friend" on their account. In this way, you can monitor your child's SN
activity.
Here's a page with a lot of useful information for parents:
http://www.facebook.com/help/?safety=parentsThank You,
Donna Tripi
