People all over the world communicate with one another in various ways, but one of the most popular means of communication since 2004 is Facebook. It is an evolution that has modified the definition of communication. Facebook is a popular social networking site created by Mark Zuckerberg, a student from Harvard University who was studying psychology at the time of his launch of his creation (Phillips, 2007). It is a social platform where 350 million individuals worldwide, upload photos and videos, comment on each other’s postings, send private messages, organize group events and join interest groups. Facebook helps people find long-lost friends and acquaintances. It is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. However, among millions of active users, there are children as young as ten years old, using Facebook by falsifying their age and some even taking on alternative personas, even though there is a rule that under-13s are not allowed to have profiles. Many parents knowingly allow their children to lie about their age and help there under age child set up a Facebook account, violating the site (Tahnk, 2015). Facebook has a negative impact on young children. Parents need to forbid children under the age of thirteen to have a Facebook account, instead of encouraging them and setting one up for them. Parents who allow children under the age of thirteen to have a Facebook account only lead their children down a path that is full of obstacles.

Millions of young children, who are active on Facebook, have encountered or have been victims of cyber bullying. Which results in emotional trauma, poor academic performance, and suicidal thoughts at very young ages. Bullying can simply start off by one person posting an embarrassing picture of another individual, which leads to name calling and eventually physical abuse offline. It has been shown in a study that “cyber bullying that [uses] pictures or video clips [are] perceived as having greater impact than traditional bullying due to the visual information and the fear of an unknown audience for these materials” (Hank, 2008, p. 24). Anyone can access anything that is uploaded on Facebook due to the fact that predators have a way of fooling the system, even if the child’s privacy setting is set to “Friends Only.” Humiliating pictures, comments, or videos can all be used against a victim when they are getting bullied over Facebook or elsewhere. Not only that, but once something extraordinary is uploaded on Facebook, it is bound to go viral to hundreds of people within minutes. Bullying can leave a life-long impact on youth and it can make it hard for them to overcome it. Even disputes amongst friends can lead to bullying over Facebook. Amy Louise, from Peterborough, was twelve years old, when one of her friends made a Facebook group about her after she had an argument with another friend of hers. It was a group that was shared publicly and for people that wanted her dead. She was a victim of Facebook bullying who cut herself off from her family and also had suicidal thoughts (Waterlow, 2013). Rebecca Ann Sedwick, a twelve year old girl from Florida jumped to her death after enduring a year of cyber bullying from two girls, ages twelve and fourteen (Schneider, 2013). Parents who are firm on their rules and ban their children from having a Facebook account before the age of thirteen are protecting their children from solicitation, harassment, and situations that they may be too immature to handle. Sonia Livingstone, professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics, said “if parents would only say to young children, ‘don’t go on Facebook’, we have found that they listen. Teenagers don’t, but younger children do.” (2010). Those children that do not listen exclaim that they use Facebook to communicate with their school friends, but if parents promote other ways of communicating and make sure their children are not using Facebook, it will only save their children from life-long traumas. For example, parents can set up play dates, where not only the children are face-to-face, but also able to communicate without lying about their age or who they actually are. In psychology, it has been proven that children learn to communicate better when they communicate with peers or with their parents. Face-to-face interaction in earlier stages in lives of young people helps them learn critical thinking skills, learn creative expression and most importantly, learn how to socialize.

Furthermore, young users who have Facebook accounts have low self-esteem. Their self-esteem can drop simply because they do not have five hundred friends on Facebook, which makes them feel like “losers” or outcasts. It could also be as simple as them not getting a hundred “likes” on their pictures. For most of the time, young children who do get a hundred “likes” on their pictures have befriended people that they barely know or may not know at all. It is very rare for someone to know hundreds of people at the age of ten or twelve. A neighbor of mine, Sydney Olsen, is ten years old and she has a Facebook account. She accepts friend requests from people that she does not know in order to gain popularity at school and to fit in with the “cooler” kids. Most kids live by the slogan, ”The more friends on Facebook, the cooler you are,” even if that means risking your life for it (O’Connell, 2010). Children must be full of confidence and self-esteem in order to grow up to be strong individuals and Facebook most definitely should not be in the way of that.

Moreover, lack of physical activity in most young children is because of the amount of time that is spent on Facebook. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that kids are spending an average of 7 hours per day using media, including Facebook (2015). Which means there is little to no time for children to be physically active. Many organizations recommend that children and teenagers should not spend more than two hours per day on a social networking site (Brown, Shifrin, & Hill, 2015). This way there is less screen time and more active time. At young ages, children need to grow and develop. Their brains are also developing along with their bodies. Some kids seem tech-savvy at very young ages, but that does not mean parents should allow them to be on social networking sites, especially at ages where children have not even developed cognitive structures that enable them to engage in ethical thinking. The ability to think ethically is a must in order to respond appropriately to any situation that a child may encounter online. Kids need to be active and on their feet, not hovered over their computers or laptops, staring at a screen for hours. Parenting is needed to ensure young children have healthier futures.

Young children, under the age of thirteen, who do not have a Facebook account will benefit in the long run. They won’t have to face the implications of bullying, low self-esteem, potentially getting kidnapped or raped, and lack of physical activity. All of which can effect the younger generations in the upcoming years. Parents need to step in and save the lives of their children by enforcing their children’s online activity, instead of amplifying the desire of a young child to have a Facebook account. They need to recognize the threats and harmful sides of Facebook. Parents need to ban children under the age of thirteen from having a Facebook account, instead of helping them create one.

Works Cited

Kirschner, Paul A., Karpinski Aryn C. (2010). Facebook® and academic performance. In, Computers in human behavior (pp. 1237-1245). doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.03.024

Sweney, M. (2013, January 23). Facebook admits it is powerless to stop young users setting up profiles. The Guardian, Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/23/facebook-admits-powerless-young-users

Brown, A., Shifrin, D., Hill, D. (2015, September 28). Beyond ‘turn it off’: How to advise families on media use. Retrieved from AAP Gateway website: http://www.aappublications.org/content/36/10/54.full

Waterlow, L. (2013, November 25). Bullies created a Facebook group for people who wished I was dead:Teenage victim admits online abuse made her feel suicidal. Mailonline. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2511836/Facebook-bullies-want-kill-Teenage-victim-shares-story.html

Schneider, M. (2013, November 21). Bullying charges dropped against girls in Rebecca Sedwick suicide case. Huffpost Miami. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/rebecca-sedwick-charges_n_4315761.html

O’ Connell, R. (2010, September 21). How to appear cooler on Facebook than you really are. Thought catalog. Retrieved from http://thoughtcatalog.com/ryan-oconnell/2010/09/how-to-appear-cooler-on-facebook-than-you-really-are/