Ok, you’ve been hearing this advice for years: monitor your children’s activities on the Internet, talk to them about the possible dangers, install web monitoring programs, and so on. And, of course, you secure your own online activities too, right?
So you think you’re covered? Maybe not.
A survey just published by Consumer Reports reveals some pretty shocking results. I found these findings to be the most worrisome: ‘Of the 20 million minors who actively used Facebook in the past year, 7.5 million-or more than one-third-were younger than 13 and not supposed to be able to use the site.’ And, ‘…more than 5 million were 10 and under, and their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents.’
Those numbers are extremely scary when you think of the possible consequences. Are these children posting pictures of themselves? Are they publicly revealing any personal information about themselves, their families, their whereabouts? Who are they friending? Who are the friends of their friends? And what about your own use of social media and online devices: are you neglecting your own security?
Here are some other troubling findings:
- More than 5 million online U.S. households experienced some type of abuse on Facebook in the past year, including virus infections, identity theft, and for a million children, bullying.
- One-third of households surveyed had experienced a malicious software infection the previous year. The estimated cost of malware to consumers was $2.3 billion last year, causing the replacement of 1.3 million PCs.
- Almost 30 % of survey respondents said they use their mobile phones to access and store bank information, medical records and other sensitive data, but without taking precautions to secure their phones.
- Many active Facebook users take risks that can lead to burglaries, identity theft, and stalking. Fifteen percent had posted their current location or travel plans, 34 percent their full birth date, and 21 percent of those with children at home had posted those children’s names and photos. Moreover, roughly one in five hadn’t used Facebook’s privacy controls, making them more vulnerable to threats.
- Twenty-three percent of active Facebook users didn’t know some of their ‘friends’ well enough to feel completely comfortable about their own or their family’s security or safety. An additional 6 percent admitted to having a friend who made them uneasy about those things. That means almost one in three Facebook users aren’t fully comfortable with all their friends.
Read the remainder of the survey results, and prepare to do a serious security audit of your home computer, mobile phones and any other online devices that you and especially your kids have access to.
My 8-yr old niece just created her first Hotmail & Messenger Chat account. Next is very likely Facebook. My brother (her father) is not a techno-geek at all. Am I concerned? Yes, big time.
Your post reminds me to raise the priority of installing web monitoring programs on my children’s computers, or at least, to discuss it with my IT husband. It has been on my to-do list for years, but now that they are 11 and 12 years old, I think the time has arrived to take action. Don’t get me wrong! I have good kids, with good values, who know right from wrong. I want to believe that I can trust them on-line as much as I do in everyday life! at the park, at the movies, at their friends house. If we raise them right, do we need to oversee their every movement on-line?
In regards to Facebook, I created an account for myself only after my 12 year old wanted one. Yes, Facebook rules don’t allow minors, but ALL of her friends have an account. Since breaking the rules and creating an account for her, I realized two things: One, I know a lot more about her and her friends since I am connected as a ‘friend’ than I probably otherwise would, and two, I get a lot of personal pleasure from reading about long lost friends scattered across the country, and as well as those closer to home, each day. As a consultant, working from home, Facebook is my much needed ‘coffee break’ during the hectic work day!
But your post reminds me that I need to double check the privacy controls on my children’s, as well as on my own, Facebook accounts!
Am I concerned about my kids on Facebook, not really, but I am glad they still call me a ‘friend’.
@Nicole – thank you for your comments. I agree that Facebook does have its good points, and can so even for kids – otherwise it wouldn’t be so popular.
But even if kids are well-behaved and well-intentioned, they don’t consider the consequences or see the potential dangers in some of the info they broadcast. They certainly don’t worry about who might be lurking in the weeds, and I think it’s a crying shame that parents, especially, are being forced to worry about those things.
But that’s the dichotomy of the Net: we love the openness and easy access to everything, but that same openness can be troubling too.