Wednesday, June 6, 2012
At what age should children be allowed on Facebook?
Is your 10-year-old child ready for Facebook? In an attempt to bolster the bottom line for investors, Facebook is considering lowering its minimum age of 13 to register, The Washington Post reports. "The move highlights what analysts say will be a recurring problem for the newly public firm: Facebook needs to find ways to increase revenue and please its shareholders, but those actions can stir privacy concerns," The Post reported. Since its beginning, Facebook has slowly broadened its scope from being restricted to college campuses to opening access to the general public. Now, Facebook's minimum age requirement is 13, and users who falsify their age to participate violate the site's terms and conditions. "Facebook said it hasn’t made …
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler hosted 'Facebook: 101' Tuesday night in Potomac, encouraging parents and kids to exercise caution online and utilize privacy settings.
With over 800 million users worldwide, Facebook’s community is the largest in the world, but many people, adults and children alike aren’t familiar with the inherent risks of social media, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said. Gansler has taken a lead role in supporting Internet privacy, writing a letter on behalf of attorney generals from 36 states challenging Google’s new privacy policy, which allows the company to collect and share more of users' personal information. Along with Brooke Oberwetter, a member of Facebook’s public policy team in Washington D.C., Gansler is also challenging Facebook users to be more aware of privacy settings and protections the social network offers. The duo presented Facebook: 101 – a community forum…
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Facebook campaign targets July 26 County Council hearing; opponents will wear purple at Harry Potter premiere.
Hundreds of high school students—most of them not yet old enough to vote—are mounting a Facebook campaign against Montgomery County’s proposed youth curfew. Within hours of County Executive Isiah Leggett's proposal on Tuesday—which would ban anyone under 18 from public places after 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends—former Richard Montgomery High School student Abigail Burman launched “Stand Up to the MoCo Youth Curfew!,” a Facebook event calling on teens to converge on a County Council hearing set for July 26. “The idea behind the curfew is a laudable one in that we all want to keep our kids safe,” said Alan Xie, a co-organizer of the Facebook rally and the Board of Education's student member. “In reality some studies have shown…
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Spreading information is a top priority for Takoma Park's newly hired media specialist.
In Mayorga Coffee Shop, just across the street from the Takoma Metro, Craig Terrill recently sat working on his plan to get information out to the citizens of Takoma Park more effectively through social media. His job didn't exist three weeks ago, but he has already started networking and has launched a campaign to guide the city's government into the digital age. Through Twitter and Facebook, Terrill hopes to give citizens more access to everything from city events to how to participate in the government process. "Social media is the fastest and best way to get information out," Terrill said. Terrill will help the city design a new website and hopes to use social media to make Takoma Park a mobile city. "We need a site that looks outward…
Eleanor Cooke
11:40 am on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Well I think that it's complicated... only parents know whether their kids ready for Facebook.... you can have 13 yr old that act 10 and 10 yr olds that act 13, so it should really be the parents choice. Maybe if they introduced an age limit of about 10 but children under 13s parent had to click on a link to verify the account or something - that way there'd be a reasonable age limit with … more ›