Underage Social Networking and NSTE Student Standards

The NSTE Student Standards for Digital Citizenship are as follows:

5. Digital Citizenship

Students understand human, cultural, and societal

issues related to technology and practice legal and

ethical behavior.

a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible

use of information and technology

b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology

that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity

c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for

lifelong learning

d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship

In the article about underage social networking, it was interesting to learn how many younger students knowingly falsified their ages on Facebook to have access. What is even more interesting is that those that were on sites that have age limits and admitted to falsifying their age, their parents were either as responsible for the age falsification as the students or just ignorant--there was only 1 student surveyed who said their parents were not aware of their usage. Either way, the students (and their parents) were not practicling safe and responsible behavior. In the article, it was stated that 82% of the students using social networking sites were aware that the information/pictures they posted were visible to strangers. So, many questions/alarms arise from this for me! ["Are they uneducated about the potential dangers of strangers having access to their information?" "If so, do they just not care?" "(More likely) Are they just too immature to grasp the severity of the consequences?" "Are their parents really okay with them being on these sites where predators have access to them?" "If their parents are okay with this,what measures do they take to monitor their children's safety?"]    Maybe I worry too much, but I think that if there are sites that cater to certain age groups, then children should be limited to those sites. They shouldn't be participating on sites where they have to lie about their age--and their parents definitely shouldn't be encouraging this behavior. By allowing students to participate on these sites where they are not truthful about their age--they are just setting a precedent for their children that it is okay to lie.