Facebook is the world’s leading social media company. It currently bans users under 13 according to its terms and conditions. However, many kids lie about their ages to open up an account. From my perspective, young children should not be allowed a Facebook account for the following three reasons.
Firstly, kids are not ready for this freedom on the Internet because of their lack of knowledge about protecting privacy, which will lead to a lot of safety problems such as cyber bullying, personal information or location disclosure and so on. Kids are on Facebook and so are the predators. They are young and so are their minds. I believe that a lot of adults have experienced malware and identity theft of harassment problems before they know, let alone those children.
There was a news report about a 16-year-old girl in USA who was found dead inside a toilet of a department store after disappearing for a whole day because of personal pictures and locations disclosure. It turned out that the murderer had stalked on her Facebook.
Furthermore, it is easier to access all kinds of information through Facebook. There are too many online scams, illegal and harmful contents since it is not set up as a site for children. Facebook should take measures to protect people of all ages from disinformation, misinformation and spams. To certain extent, children are the majority falling prey to Internet scams.
What is more, Facebook might become a major waste of time, affecting both children’s study and health. Not surprisingly, students who take mobile phones with them will log into Facebook during their study session and will receive lower grades. Once became addicted, they will not be able to focus on homework and other school activities that are not done on computers. It is not hard to imagine that teenagers who access Facebook more often on a regular basis have more stomachaches, sleeping problems, anxiety and eyesight problems.
The opposing argument is that Facebook and the way it affects our lives are things that children are going to have to come to grip with sooner or later. Therefore it is better to introduce them to the concept gradually rather than block them from it. Facebook is just a tool and young children can use it to stay in touch with their close friends or know more new friends. However, children can do that on phone or email. Besides, they can join some extra-curricular activities in order to meet more friends.
To conclude, although Facebook allows us a more convenient way to communicate, it may lead to many disadvantages. The site may cause online privacy problems and affect health and study on young children. Also, young children may access junk information on Facebook. Therefore, I think that young children should not be allowed a Facebook account.