Should Children Be Allowed on Facebook Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Should Children Be Allowed on Facebook - Essay Example The content of the article, which is a rather apprehensive note from a parent’s blog, is able to attract much debate. Two perspectives have been presented; one that children under the age of 13 should not be legally allowed to join Facebook and the other one is that children who do join Facebook under the legal age can be monitored through proper parental surveillance. But the question that arises is that to what extent can the parents monitor a child’s Facebook account? (Dellantonia, 2011). Research shows that children are most likely and the first ones to use technology for morally wrong reasons. And thus, when these young children are exposed to such unlimited freedom, results can be debilitating (Junghyun, 2011). On one hand, it is true that Facebook currently has millions of children lying about their ages on profiles (Dellantonia, 2011) and there is no real way to detect it but if Facebook complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, it can still have 13-year-olds join Facebook as that is a profitable opportunity for Facebook, but in that case it will have to invest in developing a system which will require parents’ informed consent before the child joins in and that is not profitable for Facebook (Kashmir, 2011). Even when children do not initiate illegal activity, they are often subjects to the illicit behavioral practices of those with deviant purposes and notorious plans. The young children and young adults continue to be victims of many heinous crimes led through the internet including drug trafficking, bullying, stalking, and pornography (Fodeman, 2009). In Waukesha County, Wisconsin, for example, a boy was convicted of having at least 300 nude photos of boys aged 13 to 19. He posed as a girl on Facebook and used the photos were used to blackmail some of those boys to engage in performing sexual acts with him (Marsico, 2010).