Initially, when Facebook was launched, it was for people aged 18 and above, just like any other social networking site. In an attempt to increase its user base, Facebook reduced that age limit to age 13. For anyone who is a teenager, could now be on Facebook. A recent survey by MinorMonitor, a web tool for parents to watch over their children on Facebook, indicates that 38% of the children using Facebook are actually not even 12, they are younger than 12.
The survey was based on the 1,000 parents who were asked how their kids use Facebook. Amongst those 1,000 parents, 40% of their kids were not even aged six. This is a strange fact about kids using social networking site so young when they have not even developed their social skills properly.
Hiding behind Facebook for friendships can actually be fatalistic for kids. Little children needs to go out there and experience making friends and meeting their own peers from early on so that these skills developed at such an age could come to work at a later part in life when they would actually go out facing the world at large.
The survey showed that 74% of the parents are actually worried about their kids’ safety on Facebook and mainly their fear stems from sexual predators that roam online trying to catch these very innocent people. Around 56% of the parents have this fear and 41% are afraid that their kids would experience cyberbullying. Astonishingly, parents do not seem to be able to protect kids as 30% of them think that their kids are already victims of such atrocities.