Day Twelve: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Maybe I’m a little judgmental.

Facebook is designed for College students as a social networking site. And soon it expanded to High Schoolers, as well as older people who wanted to get in touch with old friends. And great! It’s a wonderful site and I have no problem with any of that.

But then again, the last time I checked you were required to be fourteen years old to join the site. Kids lie about their age in order to get on the site, and what’s worse is that their parents knowingly let them. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen things on my Facebook page that I don’t enjoy seeing, and I definitely would not want a child to see that.

I was flipping through my best friend’s little sister’s site, she’s fourteen, and noticed that one of the girls who commented on a post was ten years old. Fourteen or thirteen seems young to me, but I can’t stop them at that age. But when you’re ten years old, it’s a little young to be on a site like that.

My brother is ten years old, and I couldn’t imagine allowing him to have a site like that. At that age, you shouldn’t be exposed to the Internet at such high levels. Quite honestly, if I learned that my brother had a Facebook I would be calling my parents upset.

Childhood is lost these days. No longer are we spending our innocent years outdoors and watching Playhouse Disney. Instead our younger generation has role models like Miley Cyrus, who at first was an innocent girl on Hannah Montana that has sense turned into a throughly awful role model. I can’t believe that she is taking her position as a role model like this. It makes me sick to think that it’s people like her inspiring the minds of our youth.

And what’s worse is that people allow this. Parents see the things that their children are being exposed to and ignore it. Saying that it’s no big deal, just innocent fun. And then they wonder why kids are growing up at such a quick rate, why childhood depression is at an all time peak. Why young girls are turning to sex as young as sixth grade.

Believe me, I have no problem with Facebook, or any messaging site for that matter. I use Facebook daily, as well as Tumblr, Twitter, Livejournal, and Blogger. They’re wonderful, fun sites. I have no problem with the Internet. If you know me, you know that I have a lot of wonderful friends that I wouldn’t know without it. But what makes me sick is that kids are growing up so fast. They’re turning to sites they’re not mature enough for.

I honestly believe people should start making an effort to get the younger generation away from the Internet, at least until they’re old enough to handle it. And quite honestly, at ten they’re not. All it takes is a few simple clicks before they’re dragged off on to sites they’re not ready for.

The Internet is wonderful. It’s full of sites that are full of great information. And they make a lot of sites that are child-friendly. I’m not saying that children shouldn’t use the Internet, only that they should be monitored. Parents should stop using the computer like a toy and make the effort to protect their children.

But maybe that’s just me.