Government norms restricting children under the age of 13 years
access to social networking sites are certainly not working if a recent
survey is to be believed.
According to ASSOCHAM
survey, a whopping 73 percent of children in the age group of 8 to 13
years are using social networking sites like Facebook. The survey was
conducted in tier-I and tier-II cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai,
Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and
Dehradun.
D.S Rawat, General Secretary of ASSOCHAM, said, “children are gaining
access to social media sites at a younger age, which could expose them
to content, people or situations that are out of their depth.” Such a
high percent of teens on social networking sites could lead to more
cyber bullying which could have serious psychological effect on them.
A shocking 75 percent of the parents of these children in the age
group of 8-13 years know that their child is a member of Facebook. And
even more appalling fact is that 82 percent of parents hoodwink the site
rules to create an account for their kids.
The survey also states, “Nearly 25 percent of 13-year-olds, 22%
percentof 11-year-olds and 15 percent of 10-year-old are on Facebook,
while 5-10 percent of 8 and 9 year-olds are also active on the site.”
Facebook has emerged as the most preferred social networking site among
this age group. Other sites like flick.com, Google Plus, Pinterest are
being used by 85 percent of children in the age group of 10-16 years.
The survey also revealed children with working parents are addicted
to technology more than those with one of their parents employed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment