On Friday I picked up my sons from school – it was the last day of school until January 4th – a nice, long break. As I greeted the school staff, and wished them well, we agreed the break was well deserved for everyone. “Time for the kids to be kids. They grow up too fast these days,” one staff member commented. I nodded in agreement, saying, “You are singing my song!”
Kids are growing up too quickly these days. Marketers have tapped into children’s natural desire to grow up and have exploited this innate desire – selling designer clothes and expensive electronic gadgets – convincing kids that owning these objects will make them feel cool and happy. This “age compression” leaves our children feeling unsettled, confused and usually not very happy. Check out these survey results about kids’ Internet searches posted by OnlineFamily.Norton:
Top Searches of 2009 – By Age Group
- Youtube, Facebook, and Google comprise the top 3 search terms for kids.
- Sex comes in at #4 for teens and tweens while porn comes in #4 for kids 7 and under.
- Taylor Swift was the top searched for term among teens. For tweens and kids 7 and under, it was Michael Jackson.
- Teens and tweens spend most of their search time online on music related subjects (34% and 27%).*
- Kids under the age of seven spend most of their search time online on games (23%).*
- Kids under the age of seven are conducting searches for P2P sites like Limewire and Mininova.
| Teen (13-18) | Tween (8-12) | 7 & Under | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Youtube | Youtube | Youtube |
| 2 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | Sex | Sex | Porn |
| 5 | MySpace | Club Penguin | Club Penguin |
| 6 | Porn | Youtube.com | Yahoo |
| 7 | Yahoo | You Tube | Webkinz |
| 8 | Youtube.com | Miniclip | You Tube |
| 9 | eBay | Yahoo | Games |
| 10 | Wikipedia | eBay | Miniclip |
| 11 | Taylor Swift | Porn | Nick Jr |
| 12 | You Tube | Michael Jackson | Youtube.com |
| 13 | Party in the USA | Fred | Gmail |
| 14 | Michael Jackson | Webkinz | Cartoon Network |
| 15 | Google.com | Wikipedia | Poptropica Michael Jackson |
| 16 | Lady Gaga | Miley Cyrus | eBay |
| 17 | Facebook Login | Gmail | Disney Channel |
| 18 | Gmail | Party in the USA | Cbeebies |
| 19 | Miley Cyrus | Games | Hotmail |
| 20 | Facebook.com | Taylor Swift | Hannah Montana |
| 21 | Justin Bieber | Addicting games | Lego |
| 22 | Lil Wayne | Hotmail | Disney |
| 23 | Hotmail | Poptropica | Yahoo Mail |
| 24 | MySpace.com | MySpace | Facebook Login |
| 25 | New Moon | Hannah Montana | MySpace |
Seeing this list drives home how difficult it has become for parents to keep a handle on what their children are seeing and doing. Did you catch that “Porn” is the number #4 search for kids seven and under? For me, there is no better time than right now to keep our kids offline and out of the virtual world. During this vacation, I am hoping that kids everywhere will have time to play creatively, build, make and do -both indoors and outdoors, and unplugged as much as possible.
Shouldn't children be going on-line from computers that can be monitored? My 11-year-old son asked for a computer for his room, instead of the one in the family room. I declined because he needs to know we're watching where he's surfing.