Do Not Post Them to Your Kids on Facebook

The Chemansou Nigkam, former security officer of MySpace now runs a consulting company for internet safety, recalls a recent incident ...

In the state of New York, he said, a 11 year old boy "made friend" on Facebook a girl from his class. But the girl's account was false and the person who was behind him began to upload photos of boys in sexually explicit sites, accompanying them with smuttily comments.

When photos of the boy began to show on searches of Google, the school had suspected that the raise himself and called his parents. The other children began to tease. "It can become a nightmare for a 11 year old who just wanted to talk to friends," said Nigkam.

Millions of children lie about their age to open an account on popular websites like Facebook and MySpace, are not allowed to register unless you are over 13 years. In 2006, 31% of 12 year old in the United States were using social networking pages, according to research by the Center for Pew, and this percentage increased to 38% in mid 2009 when the last inquiry.

The ComScore, a company that measures Internet traffic, estimates that 3.6 million of the 153 million monthly visitors to Facebook in the country is under 12 years. Some of these visitors may not have an account and just visit the shared pages, reported ComScore.

The Internet companies have set rules for young users because they must comply with the Law on Protection of Children Online 1998, whereby sites that collect information from children under 13 years must have parental consent . Obtaining such consent but is complicated and expensive affair, so companies like Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, reject anyone who tries to enroll at the age of 13 years.

It is worth noting that Facebook, Google and Yahoo declined to reveal how many children go through obstacles, but argue that trying to enforce the rules.

Also, social networking pages have no safeguards for children and although Facebook has none, but children who pretend to be above the 18 bypass, leaving them exposed.

As the Economist wrote recently: "The existing protection (children) is as effective as putting a tag" Do not touch "on an open jar of cookies."