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The Internet gives children the opportunity to access information on an unprecedented level. Kids pick up sophisticated Web surfing habits early on. Many of them realize that most of their questions can be answered after a simple Internet search. And through social networks like Facebook, kids can keep up with what their friends are up to even if they're hundreds of miles away. But is all this access safe for kids? According to Facebook's page on safety, the answer is no. That's why Facebook has an age limit on who can create a profile. No one under 13 years old can create a Facebook profile. Games like Farmville and Happy Aquarium have cartoonish graphics that appeal to kids. But Facebook has other features that make it unsuitable for children. If you look into the history of Facebook, you'll see that the site wasn't designed with kids in mind. Founder Mark Zuckerberg launched the site -- then called "the facebook" -- in 2004 as a networking site for students and faculty at Harvard.
The site was an overnight success and soon Zuckerberg extended it across other colleges. For the first two years of its existence, only college students and faculty could create Facebook accounts. In 2006, Facebook became an open social networking platform for anyone with a registered e-mail address as long as they also were at least 13 years old. Since Facebook wasn't built with children in mind, it's no surprise that the site isn't a great fit for kids. But it can also serve as a way for predators to find potential victims. Facebook has tweaked its privacy settings to make it easier for people to choose who can and can't access information on their profiles. But the purpose of any social network is to create a way for people to find you. Otherwise, why join a social network? While Facebook has policies that forbid offensive and dangerous material, it's impossible for the site to prevent anyone from posting something offensive.
Users can post links, videos, messages and other content to their profiles and, depending upon privacy settings, the profiles of their Facebook friends. Some of that material might violate Facebook's policies. Users can also flag content as offensive and Facebook has a team of professionals who review the site for anything that violates Facebook policies. Still, inappropriate material does find its way onto the site regularly. On top of those concerns are privacy issues. Users can choose how much information to share with the rest of the world. If a user opts for a public profile, anyone searching for that person might be able to see information ranging from the user's birthday to his or her home address and phone number. Other information might include what school the user goes to and who the user's friends are. Facebook leaves much of user safety in the user's hands. It's up to the individual person to adjust his or her privacy settings. Facebook can't stop someone from sharing too much personal information or posting something that might bring them into harm's way. Facebook suggests parents talk to their children about Web safety. The site also mentions that parents may want to install monitoring software on their children's computers to keep track of the sites kids visit. Parents may want to research kid-friendly social networking sites and reserve access to Facebook for a time when their children are old enough to use it safely. In many ways, Facebook serves as a microcosm for the Web in general. With education, guidance and communication, Facebook can be a safe and fun way to stay in touch with friends. But without those elements, kids could run into trouble. For more on Facebook and other social networking sites, follow the links on the next page. Phillips, Sarha. "A brief history of Facebook." The Guardian.
This document answers questions asked frequently by web authors. Web Design Group, and is posted regularly to the newsgroup comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html. Where is the latest version of this document? How can I contribute to this document? Can I email the author my questions? Where can I learn about the WWW? Where can I learn about HTML? Where can I learn about CSS? Where can I learn about SGML? Where can I learn about XML (XSL)? Where can I learn about XHTML? Where can I learn about SSI ("SHTML")? Where can I learn about CGI? Where can I learn about PHP? Where can I learn about JavaScript (LiveScript, JScript, ECMAScript, DOM)? What is everyone using to write HTML? How can I show HTML examples without them being interpreted as part of my document? How do I get special characters in my HTML? Should I put quotes around attribute values? How can I include comments in HTML?
How can I avoid using the whole URL? Should I end my URLs with a slash? How can I check for errors? What is a DOCTYPE? Which one do I use? Where can I put my newly created Web pages? How can I get my own domain name? How can I block my hosting service's advertisements? Where can I announce my site? Is there a way to get indexed better by the search engines? How do I prevent my site from being indexed by search engines? How do I redirect someone to another page? How do I password protect my web site? How do I stop my page from being cached? How can I disable the browser's right-click options? How can I protect my source, images, etc. from being copied? How do I hide my URL? How do I detect what browser is being used? How do I get my visitors' email addresses? Why is my custom 404 Not Found message not displayed?
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