Government norms on children accessing social networking sites being flouted: study

Government norms restricting children under 13 accessing social networking sites are not working according to a recent survey.

According to the Assocham survey, a whopping 73 per cent of children in the age group of 8 to 13 years were using social networking sites like Facebook.

The survey polled respondents in tier-I and tier-II cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and Dehradun.

According to D S Rawat, general secretary of Assocham, children were gaining access to social media sites at a younger age, which could expose them to content, people or situations that were out of their depth.

A high per cent of teens on social networking sites could lead to more cyber bullying which would  have serious psychological impact on them.

75 per cent of the parents of these children in the age group of 8-13 years knew that their child had a Facebook account, while 82 per cent of parents hoodwinked the site rules to create an account for their kids.

The survey further states, ''Nearly 25 per cent of 13-year-olds, 22 per cent of 11-year-olds and 15 per cent of 10-year-old are on Facebook, while 5-10 per cent of 8  and 9 year-olds are also active on the site.'' Facebook had emerged as the most preferred social networking site among the age group and other sites like flick.com, Google Plus, Pinterest were being used by 85 per cent of children in the age group of 10-16 years.

The survey further revealed that children with working parents were more addicted to technology than those with a single employed parents.

The survey was conducted under Assocham Social Development Foundation (ASDF) and the sample size  was 4,200 parents of children aged 8-13 years.

Although the majority of parents surveyed believed that there needed to be a minimum age for Facebook, 78 per cent felt that there were situations like school-related activities, and communicating with others that made it "OK" for their child to sign up for an online service even if the child was not of the minimum age requirement.

Rawat said while releasing the survey results that children were gaining access to social media sites at a younger age, which could expose them to content, people or situations that were out of their depth.

Nearly 25 per cent of 13-year-olds, 22 per cent of 11-year-olds and 15 per cent of 10-year-old were on Facebook, while 5-10 per cent of 8 & 9 year-olds were also active on the site.