The trend worries parents

Oct 28, 2009 11:40 GMT  ·  By
Slightly less than half of 10 to 11-year-olds in the UK have accounts on social media-networking sites
   Slightly less than half of 10 to 11-year-olds in the UK have accounts on social media-networking sites

According to a new scientific study conducted in the United Kingdom, slightly less than half of Primary 7 students (aged ten to 11) have social-media accounts, on sites such as Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or Hi5. Approximately 48 percent of the 3,657 children that were analyzed, as part of the Kids’ Life and Times Survey, had accounts on such websites, even though some of the online services explicitly said that they were not suitable for children below the age of 13, AlphaGalileo reports.

The new study was conducted by experts at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster, on children in Northern Ireland. The joint initiative that the two universities have, called ARK, performs a similar survey each year, in an attempt to keep track of trends concerning children in the online environment. There are numerous factors that are being analyzed during these surveys, including the amount of bullying the children are subjected to, the TV programs they watch, and how they like to spend their free time. The experiences they have at school are among the subjects as well.

“The public and the media often debate topical and controversial issues relating to children but we rarely ask the children themselves what they think about these things. The Kids’ Life and Times Survey gives children the opportunity to express their views on the issues that affect them. With so many children accessing social networking sites and playing online games, it is imperative that children are taught about online safety to protect them from the very real dangers that are present in the ‘virtual’ world,” QUB investigator Dr. Katrina Lloyd explains.

“The results from the Kids’ Life and Times Survey indicate that P7 children in Northern Ireland have widespread access to and use of technology such as mobile phones and computers. There is no doubt children in Northern Ireland, like their counterparts elsewhere, have adopted these technologies wholeheartedly to communicate with the outside world and with each other,” QUB expert Dr. Paula Devine adds. “While these technologies bring benefits for all of us, there are unforeseen dangers that can affect children in particular, such as health problems like obesity, while unsupervised access to the Internet can leave children vulnerable to sexual predators and ‘cyber’ bullying,” she concludes.