Study: 20% Of 8-15 Year Olds Have Met Online Strangers In Real Life

The Guardian:

Nearly a quarter of children between the ages of eight and 12 are evading the age restrictions imposed by social networking sites Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, a poll of young people revealed last night.

The results suggest that more than 750,000 children are illicitly using the sites - which are supposed to be limited to teenagers and adults - potentially exposing them to risky communications with strangers.

The poll of 1,000 children was commissioned by Garlik, an online information company, which said parents are responding by secretly logging on to their children's social networking pages to detect any reckless online behaviour.

...

Facebook and Bebo set a minimum age limit of 13 for users to register online and Myspace sets the limit at 14.

The poll found children spend an average of one hour a day on social networking sites. About a quarter of eight- to 15-year-olds admitted having strangers as friends on their social networking page. A fifth claimed to have met strangers they had encountered online. Two-thirds said they posted personal information on their pages, including their school and their mobile phone number.

Read the whole story: The Guardian

Comments

[darthdarcy]

That is a frightening statistic...!

[fluentinsilence]

I did the same, but in the mid- to late-90s, before myspace or facebook. All we had was chat rooms categorized by location. Keep your activities outside your own high school and things operate much more smoothly.

Other kids and external influences (internet & other communication means) have replaced parents; ask a typical parent what myspace or facebook is and they'll look at you dumbfounded.

And MikeDu made a good point of these meetups are not entirely of a lascivious nature; years ago, when kids drove around to just see what was going on around town, meeting up at a 24-hour diner, the theater, and so forth, the internet is just a more modern, updated version of that. No point in cruising around when one could simply text "So, want to meet up here?"

The more a person is going to place surveillance on their children or inquire into every aspect of their activities that don't involve them, the more that child is going to go out and do things without informing the person or fabricating a story to cover up the truth. Build trust and communication and it saves both the parent/guardian and the youth a great deal of stress and heartache.

Now, I must go meet up with strangers I met in a suspicious chatroom.

[Diogenis]

Should we be surprised?

[dadw5boys]

Where are these parents. Wrking 60 hour weeks?
To dead tired to watch the kids.

Not all of them so are too trusting.

Install 007 tracking software and you can check on your kid anytime.

Press 2 key and you can see every key touched, every word, every site, every link, and espically their pass words for my space, yahoo and other profiles on the web!

[hypnus]

If this statistic is true then why am I waiting and waiting for hours on end at the mall with wilting flowers and melted candy. It seems to me most of these kids are nothing more than big teases. The toll this takes on one’s feelings and self esteem is just terrible. These no shows should be punished.

[Triangle1]

The vast majority of kids meeting "strangers" aren't meeting online pedophiles. It's the girl up the street who has a crush on David Archuleta who meets the boy who has a crush on Miley Cyrus. They meet with a couple other friends and hang out at the mall. I'm sure there are instances when some 14-year-old girl falls in love with a 30 year old guy, he abducts her, brainwashes her, and moves to Mexico to evade the authorities. That's a tiny fraction of what's going on. Probably the same percentage they had before the internet came along. http://mespace.wordpress.com/

[Nyk]

Good point. There was no differentiation as far as I could tell as to whether the parents knew they met someone or not. There's a huge difference between, "Mom, I met this person on line and we want to go to the mall and hang out, will you take me/can I go with Mary?" and sneaking out to meet someone.

[MikeDu]

One thing is missing. 20% of children have supposedly met one of their 'internet buddies' in person. Can we assume the vast vast vast majority of those meeting turned out entirely safe and innocent, not the stuff of horror films? Sure we all want children to be safe and careful. But I'm reminded of my dear departed mother up in norther Maine nervously locking all the doors of her house because she had read about some crime in the newspaper 250+ miles away.

[berkeleygirl1962]

There are only 3 million children between 8 and 12 in the US (25% of 3 million is 750K)? This whole thing sounds peculiar. It's disappointing to see hysterical demagoguery like this on Huffpo; you can alert parents to real issues and give practical "how to" advice on investigat­ing/superv­ising our kids' internet use without resorting to inflated claims like the ones in this pointless piece.

[RightWingMarine]

If only there was some group that could monitor the children and see what they are doing online and watch out for them. We would need to have one but preferrably two people for each kid to do this. Hey, what about the parents couldn't they do something towards monitoring what their own children are doing online?

[midnightwriter]

Kids really need to not be so trusting. Too much access is the problem.

[marymansour]

This is not a good thing. Glad my kids are grown.

[sisterdebmac]

I don't have kids, but I'd be scared if I did. I've met people I became friendly with online. A few have become very good friends. I wrote a screenplay with one, had a romance with one, and currently co-run a website with one. But I was also very cautious until I was certain of who I was dealing with.

At the same time, I have been stalked and harrassed online by a couple of psychos who targeted me because of my posts on a particular message board. It's a double-edge sword. You really can't be too careful. I find it horrifying that kids think it's OK to set up meetings with complete strangers. I'm quite suprised we haven't heard more horror stories about this so far.

[TroubleNYC]

When the minimum age requirements for Facebook and MySpace are 13 and 14 why are people going to show surprise that 12 year olds are using it? Ages are so damn close!

[sociocanuck]

Totally agreed. The arithmetic is far too close...

But what are you going to do: make the internet as a whole an 18+ community? Wouldn't that just turn into an excuse for the porn industry to *completely* take over the 'net?

It's not like age restrictions stop teens from doing other stuff they shouldn't (sneaking into clubs, drinking, smoking, for instance).

[scorpioleidy]

I'll bet that number is even higher for adults, with all the dating/match sites out there! (The kids are learning this from their parents: when mom/dad meets someone online, maybe they think it's an okay way to meet people, too.)

[Diogenis]

Don't be naive. The "kids" know more than their parents.