Internet Privacy for Teens

[Rachel]

Enacted in 1998, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was established to protect the privacy of children under the age of 13. Under the act, no website could solicit personal information from users under the age of 13 without parental permission. The Internet is ever changing, however, and in 2010 the Federal Trade Commission began to look at whether or not to expand the law to teenagers up to age 18. The consideration was in response to the explosion of social networking that teens enjoy, and gives parents access to their children's personal Web accounts. Questions to consider: "At what age does someone have a right to privacy?"; "Can teens be trusted to manage their own online profiles and personae?"; "How much right do parents have to protect their children?" and "Do you have a right to privacy on something that is as public as the Internet at all?"

I got this topic on a debate website and seem to be quite interesting. Are you against this Parental Permission?
Do you think it still effective and doing a good job protecting today's children?
Would you like Parental Permission in the future for your kids?



Let's share your opinion on this!

[MKR&*42]

Oh come on as if people would ask their parents anyway. It's only gonna cause problems by restricting freedom of teenagers online and will potentially open up issues to parents being held responsible for said abuse teenagers receive.

Wait I just reread it, excuse ne what? I don't agree with parents accessing accounts at all - the appropriate authority should but parents should only be able to view content if its involved in some serious offence.

I think they fail to consider the fact not all adults behave accordingly on social networking sites.

[Catchy]

Anyone who thinks we have any sort of privacy in this day and age is mad. Just take Apples new iPhone 5S with the whole finger print scanner, essentially they're going to have access to millions of peoples finger prints? Quite scary, the thought of if it were to ever get into the wrong hands.

[xxMATTGxx]

Anyone who thinks we have any sort of privacy in this day and age is mad. Just take Apples new iPhone 5S with the whole finger print scanner, essentially they're going to have access to millions of peoples finger prints? Quite scary, the thought of if it were to ever get into the wrong hands.

That's if you believe what they said about it not being stored in their servers. It's stored on the phone and gets removed 48 hours with no unlocking of the phone. (If I remember correctly)

[Catchy]

That's if you believe what they said about it not being stored in their servers. It's stored on the phone and gets removed 48 hours with no unlocking of the phone. (If I remember correctly)

Meh, what do you believe?

[Eoin247]

Considering the amount of stupid stuff people under 18 put up online these days, that parental thing mightn't be a bad idea. It would probably also reduce bullying online as the vast majority of people wouldn't want their parents to see them torturing another kid.

[xxMATTGxx]

Meh, what do you believe?

Not even sure to be honest. It's hard to fully trust services like that these days

[peteyt]

I think having it up until 18 is a bit drastic. I mean you can have sex and 16 and drive at 17 but you won't be held responsible for social network stuff till your 18?

[Gibs960]

As far as I'm aware aren't parental restrictions and stuff on most websites are where they say "Parents Email" instead of your own and you can literally just put your own, am I thinking of the right thing?

I'm pretty sure a lot of parents don't care what they're children do online until a certain level, i.e. watching inappropriate things, bullying. And I'm pretty sure most parents when their child gets to my age and over, they accept that their child is going to explore the internet and find out about things that they're too embarrassed to ask their parents about. Because I'm pretty sure that if you haven't seen a sexual/arousing/inappropriate thing by 16, you're a bit behind socially. Look back 30 years, it used to be magazines where you could see a bit of boob and *****; but now, because it's more accessible, people lose their minds.

[Jaiisun]

I think it is important for children and teens to be mindful of what they post online. Whether this is learnt on their own, taught by parents or even in schools, is debatable.

The reason I say that is because some things (particularly images) really don't need to be put out there in the public domain. For example, a girl posting a particulaly provocative picture with the attitude "I've got a private profile, so only people I know see it". Well, yes, in the first instance. But what if someone saves it? Uploads it elsewhere? You can really only post/upload what you won't mind to go public and potentially haunt you for the rest of your life.

Should you become famous (if any of you do, don't forget me ), you may find those "private" pictures you posted plastered everywhere!

To come slightly back onto the topic, my parents didn't take too much involvement in my 'online' activity when I was younger (particularly because I didn't let them), but it depends on the person. You only need to have a little common sense to know how to behave online! There's no need to go OTT and worry about, for example, your fingerprints being sent to Apple. So what? Is there a creepy guy who works for Apple getting off on images of fingers? I don't get it!