Almost 73% of tweens in India are on Facebook and other social networking sites in spite of the fact that there’s a 13-year age bar to ban anyone below this age from joining the social network. Expecting Facebook and other similar services to enforce this restriction is quite unfair since people can easily lie about their age when signing up for an account while hiding behind their computers.
The Indian government has issued strict directives against underage users accessing Facebook and similar networks in order to deal with problems such as cyber bullying and online sexual abuse among other things. But a recent Assocham survey reveals that roughly 73% of children living in tier-I and tier-II cities in the country and aged from 8 to 13, are on social networking sites.
What’s even more surprising is that the majority of parents and guardians are apparently complicit in their kids’ online activities involving signing up for Facebook or similar websites. A lot of underage kids are said to get help from adults in charge of them, for setting up their accounts or creating profiles.
Assocham’s Dr. B K Rao explains that kids are impressionable and don’t have the experience or judgment about how to engage with others on social networking sites. When so many tweens are online, it’s open season for predators who can trick them into revealing their age while chatting or subject them to cyber bullying and sexual abuse online.
The Assoccham survey takes into account 4,200 parents with children in the age group of 8 to 13 years and residing in big metropolitan cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune.