Am I old enough to access Facebook? Children and use of the social network

Abstract

The advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook have regularly been commented on. However, this issue has never been discussed from the perspective of the restrictions that Facebook itself puts forward, which indicate that users must be at least 13 years old. By means of a survey of 475 children, this empirically grounded study analyses whether this rule is effectively being followed or if students aged under 13, attending Catalan schools, use this social network. If so, their knowledge of issues such as privacy are studied. The results of this pioneering work bring to light some differences with respect to previous research carried out in the US. For instance, despite routinely using Facebook, young users are often not aware of issues such as privacy.

Keywords: children, social networks, ICT, privacy, social relationships, Facebook.