Interesting research on youths’ circumvention of age restrictions on social networking sites

danah boyd, et al. have published an interesting paper on their research youths’ use of social networking. In light of evidence showing that youth routinely circumvent age restrictions for the use of social networking technologies, the researchers decided to examine parents’ views regarding their childrens’ use of Facebook in particular. They found that not only do youth routinely ignore age restrictions but they do so with the full knowledge of their parents (even though parents are aware of the restrictions). Furthermore, youth are often even assisted by their parents in circumventing restrictions.

Interestingly, a majority of parents stated that they are most likely to allow their children to circumvent age restrictions for “educational and school related purposes”. Given the reality presented in this paper and other related research, it raises questions as to whether parents currently think that being on Facebook somehow relates to their childrens’ education, and if so, how?