File Photo of social networking website Facebook
Despite the strict norms that prohibit children under the age of 13 from opening an account on social networking site Facebook, a whopping 73 per cent children between the ages of 8 and 13 from tier-I & tier-II cities in India are using the website, according to an Assocham survey.
The trend is dangerous as it can make children vulnerable to cyber bullying and online sexual abuse, the survey said.
"Minors lack the experience or judgement to use a social network and this raises the scary possibility of predators tracking down kids who reveal their age in an online chat, to cyber bullying and sexual abuse," Chairman of Assocham Health Committee B K Rao said.
As per the survey findings, nearly 25 per cent children aged 13 years, 22 per cent aged 11 years and 15 per cent aged 10 years, are on Facebook. The survey also reveals that 5 to 10 per cent children aged 8 & 9 years, also actively use the website.
Terming the findings as "sad and shocking", the survey found that a majority of the parents help kids lie to sign-up on Facebook, only to repent later as the kids have become addicted to the social networking site.
In fact, 75 per cent parents are aware of their child signing up on the site, and 82 per cent out of these parents helped create the child's account, it pointed out.
The survey was conducted on 4,200 parents whose children are between the ages of 8 years and 13 years in major metropolitan cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and Dehradun, among others.