Online social networks: Children are increasingly present on online social networks

Written by Sandeep Nehra

Children are increasingly present on online social networks like Facebook, but always be aware of the risks they take into revealing private information, warned on Monday the European Commission.

“A growing number of children on social networking sites, but many do not take all necessary steps to protect themselves,” said the Commissioner for new technologies, Neelie Kroes.

According to a survey of 25,000 young people from 25 European countries released Monday by Brussels, 38% of 9-12 year olds have a profile on a social networking website. For the age group 13-16 years, the figure rises to 77%.

But a quarter of them say that this profile is “public”, that is to say, accessible by anyone, even from a simple search engine. And one in five reveals his address and / or telephone number.

The risks taken are all the more important that children are young. While 78% of 15-16 year olds say they know how to change their account settings to protect their private data, this is the case only a little over half (56%) of 11-12 years.

“These kids put themselves in a situation where we can hurt them, they are vulnerable,” said Neelie Kroes.

It therefore calls on all social networking sites online to “immediately” to change the settings of the profiles of minors in order that, by default, they are inaccessible from a search engine or for people that children are not identified as “friends”.

A series of social networking websites including Facebook and MySpace, for example, had already signed in 2009 a charter of good conduct that they undertook to take steps to ensure the safety of miners.

The Commission notes however that “some very popular sites among young people in Europe are not signatories” of this charter, it announced a review.

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