Research+Project+Info

Topic: Teens on Facebook

Sources with Citations: 1 "There are people on this campus who are totally obsessed with it, who check their profile 5, 6, 20 times a day," says Ingrid Gallagher, a sophomore at the University of Michigan. "But I think that more and more people are realizing that it also has a dark side."

Her estimates are not far off. Nearly three-quarters of **Facebook** users sign on at least once every 24 hours, and the average users sign on six times a day, says Chris Hughes, a spokesman for the site. the site is the ninth most visited on the Internet, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings Hass, Nancy. "In Your Facebook.com." //New York Times (New York, NY)//. Jan. 8 2006: Sec. 4A, 30-31. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 15 Apr 2011.

2 The explosion in teen screen time is well-documented. A recent Associated Press-mtvU poll found that one-third of college students use computers, cell phones or gaming consoles for six or more hours daily. A Kaiser Family Foundation study published in January found that total media use among 8- to 18-year-olds, including TV, music, computers, video games, print and movies has increased from six hours, 21 minutes daily in 2004 to seven hours, 38 minutes in 2009.

The Kaiser study also found that the more time **kids** spend with media, the lower their grades and levels of personal contentment are Watching TV as a family, as mindless as that experience can be, is now regarded with nostalgia by parents. If your kid is sitting in the living room watching "American Idol," you can plop on the sofa with them, and "it's a shared experience," Gentile said. But if they're texting or video-chatting with a friend from school, "it's a private experience. It's like they're whispering secrets. And we find it rude." Patti Rowlson, a mother of two in Everson, Wash. , says this "has been a topic of discussion in our house for years now." She and her husband started out limiting TV time when their **kids** were little, but "then technology crept in. Cell phones, laptop computers, iPods with Wi-Fi. We, as parents, were no longer in control of screen time because we could not even tell when they were using it." Harpaz, Beth J. "Are Texting and Facebook Worse for Teens Than TV? ." //Daily Progress//. 28 Oct 2010: n.p. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 15 Apr 2011.

3 "[E]xposure to technology may be slowly reshaping your personality. Some experts believe excessive use of the Internet, cellphones and other technologies can cause us to become more impatient, impulsive, forgetful and even more narcissistic." //**(New York Times) **//

Parker-Pope, Tara. "An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness." //New York Times//. 07 Jun 2010: A.13. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 15 Apr 2011.

4 School children across the United States are lying about their age to dodge federal regulations that apply to sites with younger members.

The fake I.D. has gone digital, and has spread to elementary school.

Across the United States, millions of young people are lying about their ages so they can create accounts on popular sites like **Facebook** and Myspace. These sites require users to be 13 or older, to avoid government regulations that apply to sites with younger members. But to children, that rule is a minor obstacle that stands between them and what everybody else is doing. Cristina Flores, 44, a nurse in San Francisco, said she had decided to allow her 11-year-old son to get onto **Facebook** rather than deny it to him and risk that he would sign up behind her back. Besides, she said, she did not realize there were any age restrictions on the **site**. "It's not like there's a legal age limit for being on the Internet," Ms. Flores said.

Her son Jake said he had told **Facebook** that he was 15: "I just picked something random."

In one of Jake's fifth-grade classes at Commodore Sloat Elementary school, 15 of the 30 students said they had **Facebook** accounts. "And you should see all the third-graders who are on," said Aundrea Kaune, the class's teacher. Last year, she went onto **Facebook** and was shocked by how many students from the school were there.

"It's lying -- and about age," Ms. Kaune said. "What happens when they want to drink beer?"

The risks for underage members of social networks are not theoretical.

Hemanshu Nigam, the former chief security officer of Myspace who now runs an Internet safety consulting business, recounted an incident from his business. In New York State, he said, an 11-year-old boy accepted a friend request on **Facebook** from a girl in his class. But the girl's account was fake, and the person behind it began posting images of the boy on sex-oriented sites, along with nasty comments. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In 2006, 31 percent of 12-year-olds in the United States were using social networks, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. That figure rose to 38 percent by mid-2009, when the survey was last conducted. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">ComScore, a firm that measures Internet traffic, estimates that 3.6 million of **Facebook's** 153 million monthly visitors in this country are under 12. Some of those visitors may not have **Facebook** accounts and may simply be visiting public pages, comScore said. It reached that figure by cross-referencing its own traffic analysis with household demographics. **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Facebook **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> does have measures to protect older teenagers from predators, but children who pretend to be older than 18 are bypassing even those safeguards, which place restrictions on how widely minors can share information and on who can contact them on the **site**.

The Federal Trade Commission, which is charged with enforcing the child protection act, acknowledges the problem.

But Mary K. Engle, associate director for advertising practices at the commission, said there was no good solution.

In 2008, state attorneys general concerned about child predators helped set up a task force to research online age verification. It concluded that creating a reliable system would be extremely difficult. "I don't think anyone knows how to prevent a kid from lying about their age," Ms. Engle said.

Victoria Lai, 14, a ninth grader at Galileo Academy of Science and Technology in San Francisco, is a repeat offender.

"The first one was Yahoo, in second grade," Victoria said. "I did it to play games."

She followed up by faking her birth date to join Myspace, **Facebook** and YouTube.

"I always say I was born in 1986, not 1996, because it's just one number different. Easy to remember."

In Victoria's fifth-period honors English class, all 32 students said they had faked their birth year to gain access to one **site** or another.

Victoria's father, Brian Lai, an airline mechanic, said young people "have to have experience using the Internet. It's the future." He said Victoria told him she was going onto the sites, and he told her: "It's not good to lie, but you can make an exception."

Jerry Ng, Victoria's 14-year-old cousin, agreed. "It's one thing to lie to a person," he said. "But this is lying to a computer."

Jerry and Victoria said they were using the sites responsibly: chatting with friends, checking out videos, playing games. And Victoria said her fib had caused only one real hiccup; she appears to be stuck with her incorrect age. After she turned 13, she tried unsuccessfully to turn her birth date back to her real one.

"It wouldn't let me," she said. "So I guess I'll just leave it at that."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Richtel, Matt. "On the Web, Minors Learn to Stretch the Truth." //International Herald Tribune//. 12 Mar 2011: 15. //SIRS Researcher.// Web. 15 Apr 2011 5 Facebook 'Attack a Teacher Day' invite gets girls arrested The associated press solemnly informs me that six teenage girls at carson middle school have been arrested after one of them allegedly sent a facebook invite, to about 100 of her closest schoolmates. The event to which they were invited was called "attack a teacher day" Carson middle school principal dan sadler told the ap that the girl who allegedly sent the invite was arrested along with five others who allegedly paticipated in the party mood by posting facebook threats against specific teachers. He explained to the ap the schools and the polices stern response "school shootings reallt happen. Thats why we took it seriously. It's no OK, and it's not funny in this day and age if you're going to make a threat against a teacher." MaGriffith, martel. Facebook 'attack a teacher day' invite gets girls arrested. january 7 2011. msnbc.

6 STudent: Principal forced deletion of facebook posts a 13 year old girl who called her teacher a pedophile online says her principal ordered her to log onto facebook so she could read the offending post and encuing responses by her friends. The investigation by douglas county school officials resulted in the suspension of Alejandra sosa and 2 other chapel hill middle school students. they could face a harsher penalties, including banishmen to a sschool for children with behavior problems, when they go before a tribunal March 10. stroud referred a reporter ro a portion of the school code that the children are accused of violating. It's a "level one" offense, the worst possoble: "Falsifying, misrepresenting, omitting, or erroneously reporting" allegations of inapropriate behavior be a social employee toward a student. Alejandra said she created a facebook post because she was mad at one of her teachers. WHen she got home she said, she wrote on the social networking site that the man was a pedophile. It was a joke she said. Tagami, Ty. Student: Principal forced deletionn of facebook posts. The atlantic journal-constitution. March 3, 2011.

7 Facebook users who are under age raise concerns Across the nation, millions of younge people are lying about their ages so they can create accounts on popular sites like facebook and myspace. in 2006, 31percent of 12-year-olds in the united states were using social networks, according to pew research centers internet and american life project. That figure grew to 38 percent by mid 2009. Rightel, Matt. Miguel, Helft. Facebook users who are under age raise concerns. New York Times. March 11, 2011 8 Dispelling the youth myth- five useful facebook demographis statistics

It is the most visited site in the us. Average user spends more than 55 minuets a day on facebook. Clicks like button on 9 peices of content a month. Burbary, Kent. Dispelling the youth myth- five useful facebook demographic statistics. social media,January 13, 2010 9 Santa Barbara Middle schooll surveys students about social networking Twenty five percentof the students responded that they have a social networking siteon most of the time during homework, "IAmounge other coments from students where " I think i don't do full work when facebook is open. It takes me ten times longer, " and "It is very helpful and a big distaraction." In fact, nearly 70 percent of students polled said the feel social networking sites are addictive.  Good, Larry. Santa Barbara Middle School Surveys Students About Social Networking. december 16 2010