Age Limits on Social Media

Over the years, kids have been joining popular social media sites at younger ages. "The minimum age Battersby, 2015)
for opening a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr or Snapchat account is 13. To open a Kik account you need to be 17 and the minimum age is even older for Vine, Tinder, Yik Yak and YouTube." (Battersby, 2015)

Susan McLean says, "If I report a kid on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, they would shut it down." (Battersby, 2015) The primary concern with children under the minimum age are keeping children safe from predators and cyberbullies. From personal experience, I definitely see children  entering the social media scene at a much younger age than I ever did. I remember joining Facebook when I was 14 years old, and joined the summer right before my freshman year of high school. I also didn't join Twitter and Instagram until the summer before my senior year of high school. I never felt I joined any of these sites really late, but I do know once I joined these my sister who is seven years younger than me was right behind me. I would say my sister had to be 9 or 10 years old when she joined Facebook and around 11 years old when she joined Instagram and Twitter. I also believe both my sister and I joined Snapchat within the same day. 

"The Children's eSafety Commissioner, Alastair MacGibbon, said the technical age limit is arbitrary and it is a parent's responsibility to assess when their child has the social skills for social media, such as judging what to share and with whom." (Battersby, 2015) Parents should know when their children are setting up social media accounts and should also be monitoring these accounts to make sure their child isn't being cyber bullied or being the bullier. Depending on the age of the child, parents may also want to have their child's passwords, and their child should give it to them willingly, especially if their under the minimum age. 

It's amazing to see how a difference of seven years can have such different impact with social media. I think it'll be interesting to see how social media networks will react to kids at younger and younger ages joining their sites. Besides looking at what the sites are going to do, it'll also be interesting to see what the younger generous do. Will they continue to join these sites at younger ages and become glued to their phones or will these kids go back to playing outside and putting the phones down?

Battersby, L. (2015, October 17). Retrieved October 31, 2015, from http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/what-age-is-appropriate-to-join-social-media-20151015-gk9nat.html