Children and social networks - allow or prohibit. Children's social networks (list) Social network for 12 years old

For today's child, the Internet is not just a source of exciting content, it is part of the environment for its existence. Children are spending more and more time on social media. Let's try to figure out how useful or harmful it is.

Children in social networks. Advantages and disadvantages.

Not so long ago, mothers and fathers lamented over the excessive passion of their children for computer games. Justified at first glance. The main argument of caring parents is that sitting at the monitor and the lack of physical activity have a bad effect on health.

In fact, everything is a little different. Scientists conducted a study, the results of which showed that computer games in terms of energy costs are not inferior to physical activity! It seems incredible, but it's true. Moreover, the higher the intensity of the game, the more energy is spent. Scientists have come to a surprising conclusion - high-intensity computer games improve the condition of the cardiovascular system in children. But today, video games have quietly faded into the background. Now parents have another headache - children in social networks. And as in the case of the previous hobby of children, moms and dads see only terrible things in the new trend.

By themselves, social networks for children are neither good nor bad. It's like talking about the street. The child goes out into the yard and decides who to be friends with. Of course, the company can be imposed by peers, but still a lot depends on the baby. He chooses whether to be good or bad. The same with social networks. It depends on the child whether they will be useful or harmful. It’s great if parents push for good, show and tell. But this does not always work out. So what are the pros and cons of social media for kids?

Pros:

1. Opportunity to communicate with friends, family and loved ones. Especially if they are in another city or country.
2. Self-development and study. There is a lot of information in social networks in the form of educational films, books, programs for learning languages, lessons and master classes.
3. Computer literacy. Using social networks, the child in the form of a game learns some basics of computer literacy, and learn to work with applications.

Minuses:

1. Inappropriate content. Aggression, violence, pornography - unfortunately, there is plenty of information of this kind on the network. According to research, VKontakte is the most dangerous social network for children in this regard.
2. Social network addiction. Spending too much time on social media is fraught with addiction. According to statistics, in Ukraine every fifth child spends on social networks in sum one day a week. Dependence is fraught with a deterioration in academic performance and general well-being.
3. Posture problems. Constant sitting causes health problems. In addition to posture, the general well-being of the child suffers from a lack of physical activity.
4. Loss of real communication skills. In social networks, children communicate "in absentia". They behave more relaxed than in the real world. Sometimes even too much. As a result, offline communication seems more difficult than it actually is.
5. “Facebook depression. Scientists at the University of Houston conducted a study, according to which it turned out that users of a social network are prone to depressive disorders more than others. It's about what we see. People place on their pages the most joyful events in life, new purchases. When a user scrolls through the news feed with bright photos of friends, his own life seems boring and uninteresting. Moreover, Facebook is a social network, which is still less common in Ukraine. In us, the “disease” would have the name “depression-VKontakte”.
6. Phishing. This is an attempt by attackers under the guise of a reliable organization to obtain confidential information (bank card data, passwords, etc.) through messages. Adults fall for such tricks, let alone children.
7. Cyberbullying. Social networks are used to send threats, insults and intimidation. Unfortunately, children under the age of 16 most often suffer from cyberbullying.

The fact that networks are harmful to the child can be recognized by the following signs:

• dubious friends in the kid's friendlist;
• the child spends money on games and other virtual entertainment;
• deterioration in posture and vision;
• aggression towards you if you try to “tear” him away from the computer or tablet;
• refusal to communicate with friends offline.

Firstly, create trusting relationships in the family. It's not that easy if they didn't exist before the social media craze. The child should know that you can talk about everything in the world.

Secondly think about your behavior. How much time do you spend on social networks? And how often do you use gadgets during breakfast, or other joint pastime? That's it, the child is our little reflection.

Thirdly, make friends online with your baby. Be prepared that children do not always agree to this. It is better to agree, otherwise you risk becoming part of those 76% of parents who have no idea what their children are doing on social networks.

Children in social networks: prohibition cannot be allowed

On average, Ukrainian parents allow their child to use the Internet from the age of 8. Social networks "accept" users from 13. Let's be honest, this does not bother children. What is worth adding a few years and creating an account? But now is not about that. Age restrictions exist for a reason. This is a recommendation for parents. Mark Zuckerberg believes that it is time to revise the age limit downward. Pavel Durov, on the contrary, does not see the need for this. Allow or forbid, control or let go free - the final choice will remain with moms and dads. The main thing is that the child's life should be bright, rich and interesting. Then the virtual world of social networks will become an addition to the real world and, perhaps, will give the baby a lot of useful things.

Description of the presentation on individual slides:

1 slide

Description of the slide:

2 slide

Description of the slide:

Social media. Social networks have appeared relatively recently, causing great interest among users of the World Wide Web. Communication, searching for information and friends by interests, sharing news, the ability to listen to music, watch videos and photos, all this seems to have always been and it’s hard to imagine that people once lived without a profile on a social network. Today's children often get the skills to work with a personal computer even before they go to school. At first, children master the games, but as soon as they have the skills to read and write, nothing can stop them from starting their own page on any social network. Registration, as a rule, is free, or can be easily paid for via SMS from a mobile phone, therefore, often the help of elders is not required for this fateful action. A child who has access to his own profile on a social network gets new opportunities, but the question is how useful these opportunities are for him.

3 slide

Description of the slide:

4 slide

Description of the slide:

In the age of new technologies and a variety of online entertainment, social networks have become an integral part of our lives. Children are recommended to create their own pages only from the age of 13. The same Facebook does not allow you to register if the user is younger than this age. Before reaching adulthood, responsibility for the actions of children rests with their parents or guardians, but the problem is that adults sometimes have less experience in virtual life and cannot properly control this side of their child's development. Establishing passwords and "parental control" of sites does not always help direct children's interest in the right direction, and sometimes it has an undesirable effect: the sweetness of the forbidden fruit only spurs curiosity and makes them look for ways to bypass prohibitions. Moreover, social networks, although formally they must comply with the prohibitions on the dissemination of pornographic extremist and nationalist information provided for by law, in reality cannot always control the content coming from users. In addition, with a high frequency of hacking of social network profiles, such information may be in the focus of children's attention at any time.

5 slide

Description of the slide:

Useful social networks. The benefits of social networks for a child will primarily depend on his personality, which is still being formed at a tender age. Will he use the account to communicate with “good” or “bad” people, will he expand his horizons in a socially useful area, or will he become interested in “forbidden” topics?

6 slide

Description of the slide:

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says that social networks are a wonderful place where a child can learn a lot. A social network for a child, according to Zuckerberg, is a great start for a good education. Another plus is that a small student communicates with new people, acquiring communication skills, preparing for adulthood. Socialization is really a big plus for a child, especially if it is difficult for him to communicate with other children in the real world. Sitting at a computer or even surfing the Internet from a smartphone, a student will be better able to find a common language with his new acquaintances than if he were standing next to them. In the future, he will be able to use conversation templates to communicate in reality. Olga Molodenko, child psychologist: “You can't learn relationships in theory. This is just practice. In social networks, the child acquires many acquaintances, friends, buddies, enemies and allies. Here he will learn how to act in conflicts, respond to betrayals, victories, win the attention of people of the opposite sex. He gets invaluable communication experience. If he has time to experience it all in reality, that's great. If the day is scheduled every minute, then there is no need to deprive him of virtual relationships with people.

7 slide

Description of the slide:

But you should always know what your child is doing on social networks. You must have your own account and access to your child's page. You don’t need to follow him from behind when the child is just chatting with friends: it’s better to quietly check his actions. So you do not undermine the child's trust, but keep him safe, because the Internet is a completely unsafe place. In addition, you can gently prompt your student to solve his problems or conflicts with friends. For example, forum member Alexandra says: “My son is 8 years old. He has an account on VKontakte, and I regularly, once a week, check all his correspondence. Be sure: there are many perverts and scammers on the net, and you need to teach your child to recognize them. I know about all the actions of my son, and I can always help him with advice in a given situation. Of course, do not tell him about it, so as not to spoil the relationship, just delicately tell stories like: “I have a colleague at work, so her daughter got into this situation ...”. And then we unobtrusively suggest how to get out of this situation.

8 slide

Description of the slide:

The educational function of social networks will also play into the hands of the child. He can subscribe to groups of interest to him (mathematics, astronomy, etc.). On his own, he is unlikely to look for interesting and useful information in books - in the form of a game, learning will be much more efficient and faster. In the modern world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to communicate with relatives. At least on the phone. But VKontakte, Facebook and many other social networks will help to establish contacts even with distant relatives. Psychologists and parents with many children recommend that children communicate with all their relatives - this makes them happier.

9 slide

Description of the slide:

Unsafe world. But not everything is rosy in the world of social networks. Many experts emphasize that a child, having filled in all the information fields in the user's profile, exposes himself and his loved ones to a large number of risks. Threats may arise: - for moral values ​​(who will protect him from pedophiles and pornography?); - invasion of privacy (not the fact that with the publication of photos and hobbies, classmates will not support him); - physical security (hooligans, fans, enemies - all of them can wait at the entrance); - the appearance of viruses, fraudulent schemes (the status "Left for the sea" actually gives the thief the key to your door).

10 slide

Description of the slide:

As a rule, the protection that stands at the entrance to social networks or other Internet resources cannot compete with children's curiosity. Who prevents a child from adding a few years to himself virtually in order to gain access to information of interest to him?! In 2011, a Facebook audience study (surveying several thousand American families) showed that 7.5 million children under the age of 13 were registered on this social network. Of these, 5 million have not even reached the age of ten. Sociologists say that about 70% of parents control the actions of their children at the age of 13-14. At the same time, 10-year-old moms and dads are monitored only in every tenth case. Adults don't worry so much about their fidgets until they're in their teens. But it is important to know that children suffer from online aggression just as much as adults. The creator of the social network "VKontakte" Pavel Durov, unlike his American colleague Mark Zuckerberg, said that his resource was not created for children.

11 slide

Description of the slide:

Why are social networks dangerous for children? 1) One of the dangers is a decrease in empathy, the inability to empathize. Children who grew up in social networks lose their interpersonal skills - they do not know how to blush, touch each other, give a spontaneous reaction, and most importantly, receive an immediate response from the interlocutor and conduct a dialogue. Comments and online communication are all imitations of real emotional dialogue. Perceiving another person, the impression of him is made up of 70% of non-verbal information, while the human brain works this way. So, communicating in social networks, we close ourselves in two-dimensional space. The drug "Ritalin" is prescribed in England for attention disorders. So, over the past ten years, it has been prescribed three times more often, especially to young people and children. Scientists have reason to believe that this is due to computers: children who sit for 4 hours a day playing a computer game develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which then prevents them from studying at school.

12 slide

Description of the slide:

The scale of the negative effects of social networks, of course, depends on the individual, but children are practically defenseless against such influence. The child needs to be shown positive experiences in the real world and encouraged to use the virtual world wisely. Otherwise, children will develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is interesting to see how people's communication on the Internet has evolved. In 1999, people wrote on Livejournal that they have a cat, in 2004 they posted photos and videos of this cat, in 2010 they can tweet once an hour that their cat sneezed. Opportunity arose and people began to talk to each other about things that no one needed to know. Social media users are like little children. They seem to say to their mother: “Look, I already know how to wear tights.” Moreover, they are waiting for a feedback, evaluation, i.e. confirmation of their existence on Earth.

13 slide

Description of the slide:

2) Recklessness. Another danger of social networks for children is that a person does not know how to assess risks. Almost all virtual actions do not have irreversible consequences. Pages on social networks can be edited, comments can be deleted and added, dying in a computer game, in most cases, you can restore your character and continue. This is not the case in real life, but by educating the brain in an environment where actions do not entail consequences, we get a person who simply does not know how to adequately assess risk. This is due to the influence on the area of ​​the frontal cortex of the brain responsible for logical connections - it is, for example, poorly developed in children and schizophrenics who have difficulty concentrating, easily react to external stimuli and think the opposite of most adults - from cognitive to sensual. Consider, for example, one worker who survived a frontal injury with damage to the prefrontal cortex. The man recovered, went to work, but it was hard not to notice the change in his personality. He began to make promises that he could not keep, to make risky bets and to show supernatural recklessness. And despite the fact that he was physically quite healthy, he could not lead a normal life.

We live in an age of advanced information technology. Social networks are an integral part of our life. Every phenomenon always has two sides: bad and good. The situation is exactly the same with social networks, where positive information is located, and, at the same time, the Internet space is filled with various data and information that are far from always necessary even for adults, and even more so for children.

What measures should be taken so that the child uses social networks safely for himself, and parents are always aware of the events that happen to him? Let's try to figure this out next.

There are two main aspects of the question:

1. Adults and their behavior on the Internet.
2. The behavior of a teenager in social networks and his safety.

Quite often you have to watch how literally every second parent posts a variety of information about themselves and their children. Moreover, they perform these actions with incredible frequency, uploading photos almost every half an hour.

It doesn’t even occur to them that the data they provide is an occasion for reflection by many people, among whom not all of them are correct and positive.

It is clear that the Internet is a huge source of information. And very often it is analyzed and collected by people who are unsafe for our children. On the contrary, this information is often used by those who may pose a direct or indirect threat to the child.

If a person who has not the purest thoughts (to put it mildly) wants to establish contact with adults to implement any illegal actions, then it will be more difficult for him to do this, due to the fact that it is more difficult to deceive an adult.

But with children it is much easier to find a common language and gain confidence. Therefore, parents should really think about what is worth telling and showing on the Internet (number of children, place of residence, etc.), and how often.

For the sake of safety, children must be taught to catch the so-called marker words, which are a signal of anxiety. And at such moments, a teenager should turn to his parents.

Marker words:

• "You are very pretty." This is true for both girls and boys.
• “How often do your parents go away?”
• "What are your relatives doing?"
• "Do you often go somewhere far away?"
• "Do you stay at home alone (alone)?"

It should be noted that such words-markers are constantly supplemented and updated. Criminals have become more inventive and are using new tactics to gain confidence in teenagers. They may also write to the child asking for help or ostensibly asking for advice.

For example: “I have a son (daughter) of the same age as you. And I had difficulties with him / her (description of a situation). Can you tell me how to do it right?" Of course, these are invented situations, told in order to start a correspondence.

The child, flattered by such confidential attention to his person, begins to respond. This is how a correspondence begins, during which there is a gradual removal from the original topic and communication is transferred to a different direction.

Everything happens gradually and unobtrusively, so the child himself does not notice how the initial essence of the conversation is changing, vigilance has already been lost.

These words can sound in different variations, the main thing is to catch the alarm signal in them. Parents should say these phrases to the child each time, reminding them that if they come across them, they should immediately tell adults about it.

All conversations and explanations should be conducted in a friendly atmosphere. Parents should become authorities for their children. Then they will not have a feeling of fear to tell their loved ones about something.

If parents are faced with this kind of situation (described above), then it is necessary to jointly review the account of the person from whom the correspondence originates. Any suspicions should be checked and, if necessary, blocked the account for access or take more drastic measures.

Adults should constantly check what and who writes to their children on social networks. And this is not about ethics, it's about protecting your own children. Such control will not need to be carried out continuously in the future.

The key is the initial stage, when children are still teenagers and do not know about all the dangers of the Internet space. In the future, when a certain experience is accumulated, such a need will disappear by itself.

Smart control, taking into account the interests of the child

Parents should not correct the way their children communicate with friends. In the course of monitoring the correspondence of their children in social networks, parents may encounter something that they do not always want to see (profanity, etc.).

But adults should understand that this is the personal space of the child. This is where ethics, love and trust come into play.

Do not dictate the rules of communication between children and their friends. If these people have friendly communication with your children, and it does not threaten them in any way, you should not exercise strict control here and correct anything. The child should express himself in communication with others, as he considers it necessary and acceptable.

Naturally, there are things that should be classified as forbidden: candid shots (with bare body parts). The child should not lay them out on his own and cut off requests in his direction to show some part of his body in the photo.

This can also include boasting about some new purchases, a photo of the interior of your apartment, in general, everything that can indicate a good material wealth of the family.

Otherwise, you need to understand that teenagers live in their own subculture, and you should not totally control it.

Friendly, open relationships with your children are key. When a teenager has a warm positive relationship with his parents, he does not have to go looking for support somewhere on the side, including in social networks (here it would be appropriate to give an example of the tragedy associated with the Blue Whale group, which operated on the Internet ).

This need will disappear by itself, because the child will know that he can always come and share with his loved ones. Therefore, it is very important to try your best to establish these relationships, through constant friendly conversations. Then there will be no closed topics, and there will always be an opportunity to deal with the current situation.

Summing up all of the above, we can advise parents the following:

Take care of yourself and take care of the safety of your children in the Internet era.

Recently, web application developers have been striving to introduce their online products not only to adults, but also to the younger generation, who are fascinated by digital technologies and spend more and more time on the Internet. Software companies are especially active in this direction, presenting various media projects for children's audiences in RuNet, including social ones. We offer you an overview of some of these online resources.

• Webkinz- a global social network for children, which is completely safe and offers the possibility of social adaptation to adulthood. Owners of soft toys of the same name, which carry a secret code to access the site, can become members of the community.

We bring to your attention media projects for a children's audience, because. Recently, web application developers have been striving to introduce their online products not only to adults, but also to the younger generation, who are passionate about digital technologies and spend more and more time on the Internet. Here are some of these online resources.

"World of Bibigon"

A children's social network created by the VGTRK holding on September 4, 2008, and, according to the developers, has every chance of becoming the starting page for all Russian schoolchildren. The project interface is made in the form of a ribbon, and the site itself is divided into information, social, educational and entertainment parts. The first part publishes various kinds of news, the second is intended for users to communicate with each other through chats, online diaries, internal mail and other tools, the third part presents training programs, encyclopedic materials, as well as electronic versions of textbooks and video tutorials. As for the fourth section of the portal, here a young Internet user can play games and participate in all kinds of intellectual contests. According to the authors of the resource, a deeply thought-out security system has been implemented in Bibigon's World and there is always a psychologist who can be asked a question both in children's clubs and in the part of the network hidden from children, intended for parents and teachers.

The project combines three areas: social, entertainment and educational. The social network "World of Bibigon" is a set of resources intended for children, teachers and parents. The age of the children's audience is 7-14 years. Due to the fact that the audience of the project is children, it is assumed that there are a number of measures for the safe presence of children in the project. Registration of users by invitation, control and regulation of relationships within the network is carried out by network moderators, who are selected from among school teachers (computer science teachers, psychologists), as well as by the project administration and psychologists. All resources are located within the network and do not contain extraneous links. The network functionality allows you to connect any external applications, which greatly simplifies the introduction of new functions and sections.

Project features:

1. User's personal space: diaries, photo albums, groups of friends configured by users on their own, internal mail, applications connected at the choice and desire of users, news from friends.

2. User communities: interest clubs for various groups of friends, where users themselves act as hosts, as well as invited guests of the project - authors of well-known children's printed and Internet resources.

3. School page and club with a list of registered students, information about the school.

4. Applications: educational and entertainment resources.

5. Information section: articles, tips, reviews on topical and interesting topics for children, updated weekly.

6. Contests for project users.

7. Closed clubs for parents and teachers, questions for a psychologist.

Convenient and safe communication environment for students, teachers and parents. Homework, schedule, grades - all in one place. Dnevnik.ru is a site that makes life at school and around it more interesting and varied.

Schoolchild:

• Communication only with peers and selected adults
• Convenient schedule and other study tools
• Active participation in school life
• All-Russian calendar of olympiads, contests, competitions, etc.
• Jobs for schoolchildren (work during holidays)
• Expert advice and more...

Teacher:

• Comfortable and safe environment for communication of the whole school
• A single guide to everything and everyone in the school
• Convenient schedule and other tools for managing the educational process
• Convenient tools to streamline administrative work
• Communication and exchange of experience with teachers throughout the country and abroad
• Optimizing communication with parents
• All-Russian calendar of events
• Unified catalog of textbooks
• Distance courses for advanced training

Parent:

• Convenient and safe environment for communication with the class teacher, teachers, director
• Communication and exchange of experience with other parents
• Access to information about the child's progress and activities
• Unified calendar of school events
• A single source of information on the exam
• Information center for university applicants
• Catalog of all sections and circles in the city
• Modern electronic library
• Consultations of psychologists and other specialists

"Tweedy"

A social project launched at the end of September 2008 by RosBusinessConsulting together with the Israeli company Tweegee and aimed at children aged six to fourteen. The Tvidi.ru website has created a unique environment for the development of a child. Children can play online games, chat, keep diaries, post photos and videos, find new friends, and build virtual worlds and upload files. Thanks to special tools, Tweedy subscribers can quickly create and design their page on the World Wide Web. The system provides special mechanisms for security and content pre-moderation, designed to protect young users from any kind of harmful influence.

Smeshariki

A social network based on the animated series of the same name. In the virtual world of Smeshariki, children can participate in game tournaments, watch cartoons, listen to audio fairy tales, communicate with other network members, look for friends and, with the help of their favorite characters from the series, find answers to any tricky questions. The system maintains a rating of the most active users, provides a forum, and also has a section for parents, which provides information on the correct upbringing and education of the child.

A social network for Russian schoolchildren, which brings together students from different schools from different cities, allows you to find friends of interest and communicate with them by exchanging text messages and files. The participants of the service created by Intellect can create their own classes and groups, fill them with the most interesting moments from school life, photo and video materials. ClassNet regularly hosts various intellectual contests, by participating in which you can earn virtual coins and receive prizes.

This is a social network for children, focused on the age category from 5 to 12 years. On the site, children can create their own characters to represent them in the virtual community. In the game world, the characters will live, play, communicate, and make new acquaintances. In the fairy-tale world of Webikov, toys from the real world will come to life, and the child will be able to take care of them, play entertaining games, and learn how to work with computers and other useful skills. There are many games on the Webiki site, from simple and entertaining for any kid to more complex games that allow children to learn counting, spelling, intelligence, computer work and the rules of behavior on the Internet.

According to a study conducted in 2013 by the Internet Development Foundation with the support of Google among Russian teenagers and their parents, the level of digital competence of adults and children in our country is approximately the same and is one third of the maximum possible. It turns out that adults are afraid for children in the online space, not because they know a lot about it, but vice versa - because they themselves do not know anything about it. There are misconceptions among adults about networks and their harm to students. Often they only increase anxiety and do not contribute to the constructive resolution of conflict situations that may arise regarding children's online communication.

Misconception 1. If a child starts to communicate in networks, he will not learn to build relationships with people in real life.

Many parents are afraid that the networks will literally entangle the child, and he will not be able to make new friends offline. In fact, if this happens, then this indicates psychological difficulties, the cause of which, most likely, is not the use of social networks. Online communication, on the contrary, sometimes helps to establish contact with those with whom it is impossible to do it face to face, and bring the experience of positive interaction into life.

Misconception 2. The child is not yet mature enough to painlessly experience hurtful comments, which are often provoked by online communication.

Many adults know from their own experience how unpleasant it is to read criticism and caustic jokes addressed to them. And not everyone can boast of the ability not to take it painfully. But, unfortunately, this is part of life. Hurtful comments start on the playground and follow us into adulthood. Online or offline, children face rejection, misunderstanding and other negative things that they need to learn to do something with, to overcome. Networks exacerbate the situation only by the fact that it is very easy to leave any comment on them. But this is a feature of today, in our age it is difficult to avoid online communication.

If you don't know how to use matches, it doesn't take long for a fire to start. Even if a child spends five minutes online, he must imagine that, for example, you can’t give your personal data to strangers, that there are online scammers and paid applications that you can buy completely by accident. Limiting the duration of online sessions solves other problems, primarily those related to discipline and health.

Misconception 4. A child should not use social networks until the age of 13 (16, 18, and so on).

The most common online applications set an "age threshold" in the user agreement: only users who have reached the age of 13 can create their accounts in them. This is due to the legislation in the field of personal data protection. But this does not mean that there is a magical date after which the networks will automatically become safe and harmless for the child. At whatever age a person starts his first page, he will need to get used to the new world of online communication.

For example, this is why Kaspersky Lab employees advise parents not to resist the movement of children towards online communication, but to lead it and tell about all the subtleties along the way. You can start by helping to create a personal page. At the same time, the child should be told about the privacy settings, that the Internet is a public space, so you should always keep in mind who will see the photos and messages you posted.

Most of the problems that arise when communicating on social networks are related to the feeling that everything here is not real, everything is a game. It is imperative to explain that everything here is like in ordinary life, and a sloppy word can really offend the interlocutor.

Just as we explain the rules of conduct in public places, we need to explain the rules of conduct online. The main idea is simple to formulate: your online actions are no less real than your offline actions, and the consequences can be no less real. Children at an early age are taught that it is dangerous to trust unfamiliar adults. They tell how to be in case of obsessive attention from an unfamiliar person. The same applies to networking.

An interesting conversation took place during a broadcast on the radio "Echo of Moscow" on December 21, 2014, dedicated to the safety of children on the Internet. A member of the working group on the development of rules of conduct for schoolchildren in social networks spoke about the need to conduct educational courses on safety for children, and a visiting computer science teacher defended the position that acquaintance with the rules of behavior on the Internet should take place during the direct activities of the student. Without dividing the culture online and offline, it is possible during joint classes and communication to pay attention to the rules of safety, dissemination of information, communication opportunities. After all, social networks are created for communication, and they can be actively used in the learning process.

To treat social networks only as something that needs to be banned or strictly controlled means not to notice an important point. Did the child start a Vkontakte page? Fine! Now you have another channel through which you can get to know his inner world, hobbies, and friends better. Here you will be able to analyze various life situations together. It is so convenient to share interesting information and connect with like-minded communities here. Ultimately, it is the adult who, by his personal example and in joint activities, can show the child what to do with the social network: “hang out” in it or use it as a tool for more interesting tasks.

FOR CONSIDERATION A BILL that requires a complete ban on teens under the age of fourteen from registering on social networks. Russians 14+ are offered to open access to social networks only according to passport data. It is no secret that most teenagers have already managed to create accounts at least on the VKontakte network. We talked to the children to find out what they do on social networks, what groups they sit in, what they post on their instagrams, and how their parents feel about it.

Sofia

I have been on social media since I was six years old. I spend most of my time on VKontakte - about half an hour a day, but sometimes I manage to take longer; As a rule, I go to social networks through a phone or tablet. On VKontakte, I communicate with friends, we exchange all sorts of interesting things. I myself created three groups, and there were quite a lot of people. Usually I like to sit in public, where they post pictures with cute cats, and in principle I like to learn new things about animals. Sometimes I post cats on my page. I also listen to VKontakte music, usually I just stumble upon some popular songs.

Mom constantly controls me on VKontakte - with whom I communicate or which groups I join. I think social media can be dangerous for kids. You may be offered to join death groups and forced to carry out orders from administrators. They say that if you refuse, they will blackmail you, and you still have to fulfill their orders - for example, jump from the roof of the ninth floor.

Ivan

Usually I use VKontakte and Instagram networks in my free time or during less important lessons. As a rule, from the phone, but if you need to watch a long video, I turn on the computer.

Usually I surf the Internet for fun - I watch memes, but sometimes I come across interesting serious articles. I am fond of history, so I also constantly look at thematic groups on this subject. Thanks to social networks, learning something new about this is much easier. I also listen to music through VKontakte. I also subscribe to various media, for example, Lentach and The Flow. Our class has its own VKontakte chat, thanks to which it is much easier to find out homework or about some school events, for example excursions. On Instagram, I post photos from trips or just something interesting from everyday life. Instagram is a pretty cool social network, thanks to it I found out about the new album of rapper Purulent.

My parents do not control my social networks in any way, maybe only in the third or fourth grade they tried to take the phone away. Now we correspond either in telegram or viber. It seems to me that social networks can be dangerous for children only if they are mentally ill. Much more traumatic is the pressure of teachers and classmates, and sometimes even parents.

Sonya

I have been active on the Internet since I was eleven years old. Initially, she simply wrote to her mother that she had come to school so as not to spend money on it. Most often, I sit on VKontakte and Instagram, not all the time, but every time when there is extra time that there is not much to spend on. I don't have my own computer, so I use my phone.

Usually I correspond with someone, scroll through the news or look at photos. I hardly sit in groups, except that I find music in the public “The musicend”, and I read the news in “Lentach” or “Uninteresting Facts”. I have an instagram, but I rarely post photos there, but I constantly look at other people's. I follow my friends and various actors from the series that I like. I almost never get to know each other on social networks, I often communicate with friends or classmates. We correspond very actively with the class on VKontakte, because we decide where and when we will go to have fun, and sometimes we learn homework.

My parents never controlled me on social networks, because I don’t do anything forbidden there. But I know that there are also dangerous groups.

Veronica

I started using social networks when I was given my first phone. Instagram is quite popular, and there you can express your thoughts, talk about something, so the first thing I did was register there. I especially like the comments, because under the photo you can describe your feelings. I post my dog, selfies, beauty, a lot of travel photos - showing what mood I'm in, good or bad. On Instagram, I mainly follow my friends, their mothers and friends of my aunt (she is a student).

There are a lot of smart posts on Facebook, informative not only for children, but also for adults. You can understand how to behave - take care of loved ones and so on. But there are also funny videos and pictures that I enjoy looking at. On Facebook, I mostly follow my dad's friends and some of my classmates. And I usually post my grandmother there - everyone knows her on Facebook. Usually I write how beautiful she is, and once I joked under the photo: “A drunk grandmother is a misfortune in the family.” In general, I am friends with my relatives on social networks.

Once I registered on VKontakte, but my parents found out about it and forbade me to sit there, because a lot of things for adults are posted on this social network. At first, they told me that Facebook was also for adults only, but then my mother reconciled and allowed it. We usually communicate with her in WhatsApp or call up.

Social media can be dangerous for kids and everyone in my class knows about it. There are people who can hack your Instagram or just get your phone number and then figure out where you live. Therefore, I always make my pages private.

Ilya

Usually I use VKontakte and Whatsapp from my phone for about 9-10 hours a day. At first I sat on VKontakte only to communicate with friends, but now I read news and interesting posts there. I am subscribed to music and news publics, and also to communities where vines are posted. I also have an Instagram account, but I rarely post my own photos. Usually I just watch what my friends and rappers post. I very rarely meet people through the Internet, but I often correspond with former classmates or friends. And in the classroom we have our own chat where we share school news with each other.

Parents do not try to control my behavior in social networks, because the Internet can be dangerous only for a child with an unformed psyche. It seems to me that a much bigger problem is that there is too much unnecessary information on social networks.

Some web application developers seek to introduce their products not only to adults, but also to the younger generation. Companies that present children's media projects on the Web are especially active in this direction.

Recently, web application developers have been striving to introduce their online products not only to adults, but also to the younger generation, who are passionate about digital technologies and spend more and more time on the Internet. Software companies are especially active in this direction, presenting various media projects for children's audiences in RuNet, including social ones. Today we decided to get acquainted with some of these network resources.

"World of Bibigon". A children's social network created by the VGTRK holding on September 4, 2008, and, according to the developers, has every chance of becoming the starting page for all Russian schoolchildren. The project interface is made in the form of a ribbon, and the site itself is divided into information, social, educational and entertainment parts. The first part publishes various kinds of news, the second is intended for users to communicate with each other through chats, online diaries, internal mail and other tools, the third part presents training programs, encyclopedic materials, as well as electronic versions of textbooks and video tutorials. As for the fourth section of the portal, here a young Internet user can play games and participate in all kinds of intellectual contests. According to the authors of the resource, a deeply thought-out security system is implemented in the "World of Bibigon" and there is always a psychologist who can be asked a question both in children's clubs and in the part of the network hidden from children, intended for parents and teachers.

"Tweedy" . A social project launched at the end of September last year by the RosBusinessConsulting company together with the Israeli company Tweegee and aimed at children aged six to fourteen. The Tvidi.ru website has created a unique environment for the development of a child. Children can play online games, chat, keep diaries, post photos and videos, find new friends, and build virtual worlds and upload files. Thanks to special tools, Tweedy subscribers can quickly create and design their page on the World Wide Web. The system provides special mechanisms for security and content pre-moderation, designed to protect young users from any kind of harmful influence.

Smeshariki. A social network based on the animated series of the same name. In the virtual world of Smeshariki, children can participate in game tournaments, watch cartoons, listen to audio fairy tales, communicate with other network members, look for friends and, with the help of their favorite characters from the series, find answers to any tricky questions. The system maintains a rating of the most active users, provides a forum, and also has a section for parents, which provides information on the correct upbringing and education of the child.

classnet. A social network for Russian schoolchildren, which brings together students from different schools from different cities, allows you to find friends of interest and communicate with them by exchanging text messages and files. Participants of the service created by Intellect can create their own classes and groups, fill them with the most interesting moments from school life, photo and video materials. ClassNet regularly hosts various intellectual contests, by participating in which you can earn virtual coins and receive prizes.

A word to the developers of social services for children

The creators of Internet resources intended for a young audience attach great importance to the security of communication on the network. With questions about how children are protected from persons suffering from pedophilia, and how it is determined that a child has actually registered on the site, and not an adult with certain goals and intentions, we turned to the leaders of children's social networks, and this is what they told us answered.

Tatyana Korneeva, project manager "Children's social network "World of Bibigon":

"World of Bibigon" is a social network with closed registration. There are three types of users who can register themselves: children, adults and teachers. All children's applications are subject to mandatory manual moderation. An adult user can register on the network using an SMS message, having received an activation code on a mobile phone. Invitations are sent to teachers only after telephone communication with company employees.

Of course, even such strict conditions of registration cannot absolutely guarantee the absence of penetration into the children's part of adults with bad or hooligan intentions under the guise of children. Therefore, all user content, be it images, personal correspondence, which was signaled by the updated anti-matter system, the contents of clubs and diaries are monitored around the clock by the project staff. Particular attention is paid to user complaints and even the reasons for adding to the ignore list. The rules of the project are quite strict, and their violation is immediately suppressed by the moderators. Any suspicious activity is logged and analyzed.

Adults can freely communicate in their part among themselves. They have their own interest clubs - parenting, applications. This is a kind of parent meeting, where the main topic of communication is family and children, and, in parallel, just common interests of parents - from cooking to vacation trips. Also, parents have the opportunity to get advice from experts on health, education, psychology of children, their safe communication on the Internet. And, of course, they can communicate with their child, see who he is friends with, what communities he belongs to. And you don’t have to worry about what their child is doing - we don’t have dangerous options in principle, and moderators are watching everything.

We encourage users to register under their own names and indicate their school, but do not make it a requirement. However, any contacts (phones, icq, addresses and even e-mail) are prohibited from posting and are deleted by moderators.

"World of Bibigon" also closely cooperates with the Foundation for Assistance to the Development of the Internet Network "Friendly Runet". Any user can contact representatives of the Fund and report violations they have encountered on the Internet. In the near future we will hold a joint Olympiad on the safe use of the "Interneshka" Network. The Foundation also provides children's educational aids, which are placed in addition to the materials and recommendations we already have.

Oleg Ulyansky, General Director of "Tvidi":

It is much more difficult for an adult to register in the Tweedy system due to special restrictions laid down at the registration stage. Moreover, our user behavior monitoring system provides insurance against the appearance of unwanted people on the site. The online behavior patterns of an adult and a child are very different, and the difference between a child and an adult who seeks children's attention is especially great. It is deviations from children's norms of behavior that the system monitors. And as soon as there are suspicions about the "adulthood" of the user, they check it and in some cases delete it.

In addition, the safety of the child on the site is ensured by global content pre-moderation. Everything that children publicly write on the site, all images, audio and video files that they upload, appear on the site only after passing the verification. Of course, we do not disclose all the details of Tweedy's protection systems, but we can say that the site was developed on the basis of the American COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) standard, and Americans are more than known for their special strictness in the field of child protection.

All services of our site are equally safe and designed specifically for children.

Sooner or later, any child gets acquainted with the computer, and later with the Internet. As a rule, initially children are attracted to games, then they get older, start attending school, get to know their peers. Very soon, they get information about the existence of social sites on the Internet, thanks to which you can communicate with friends without even leaving your home. Here are the most popular social networks for kids:

Webiki

Webiki is one of the safest social networks that contains online games that contribute to the creative development of the child. By creating an account on the site, your child will be able to correspond with their friends who are also registered there. According to the rules of this network, no one except friends can send any messages to the child. In addition, each incoming and outgoing message will be checked by the moderator for compliance with the rules and the absence of invalid forms. If you wish, you can set up parental control on the site and receive information about how much time the child spends at the computer, what actions they perform, etc. By setting a time limiter, you don’t have to remind your child that it’s time to leave the Internet - when the allotted time runs out, the site will automatically close. Before that, the child will receive several notifications that time is running out.

www.webkinz.com/ru_ru/

This social network for children is designed for users from 7 to 14 years old. Contains interactive and entertaining programs that help children socially adapt to adulthood. The main advantage of the network is that all the intended actions of a child sitting on the site are already pre-modeled by the developers. This excludes the possibility of unwanted and harmful information appearing on the site.

classnet.ru

Here there is a communication of children on the Internet from different schools and other educational institutions. Children can freely communicate, create classes and fill them with all sorts of information. Share photos and videos, meet peers, find friends with the same interests. This project helps to save all school memories in a special archive. Unlike the sites above, this social network offers more freedom of action for children. It will be more difficult for you to control correspondence, and to limit the child from unwanted influence.

Tweedy

This network is also intended for children of school age, however, unlike Classnet.ru, access to it is limited. The creators of Tweedy tried to make the resource more secure and made registration more difficult. Access to the site is possible only at the invitation of an already registered user. Tweedy is a unique children's environment that promotes the development of school-age children. On the site, you can play various online games for children, keep a diary, and post your photos and videos.

The above social networks for children can be safely attributed to the safest. Everything points to them that there is nothing for an adult to do there. However, according to surveys, most schoolchildren often spend their free time on Vkontakte, Twitter, Facebook and other completely non-childish resources.

How many times have you paid attention to what the kid plays, what social networks he communicates on and what sites he sits on? Have you ever thought about how terrible the network is for a child? But seemingly harmless social networks for children can pose a potential, psychological threat to your baby! Despite the fact that this or that site is not designed for adult visitors, anyone can register on it under the guise of a child. In personal data that will not be checked by anyone, you can specify any gender, age, any interests and, having entered into the trust of the baby, become his virtual friend.

Precisely because there is a danger of the Internet for the child, it is advisable for parents to install parental control on the computer in advance and monitor the resources on which the child is sitting. The socialization of children on the Internet entails self-determination in society, the formation of views and spiritual values. It is very important that the virtual life of the child does not replace his natural and real impressions, the baby must get acquainted with the world personally, and not through a bright monitor window. For most parents, the child's ability to independently use a computer and search for the necessary information in the virtual space causes pride. However, only until the situation becomes directly opposite. One day it becomes clear to everyone that it is no longer the child who controls the device, but it drives them.

The expanses of the Internet are great, all children's weaknesses, fantasies and desires are feasible in the virtual world. In order to transform into a superhero or control him, the child no longer needs to beg you for an expensive toy, because you can play online! Why look for friends and get to know someone when you can make friends with anyone with just two clicks of the mouse? Gradually, the child and the Internet become almost inseparable. Without the timely intervention of adults, the virtual life of a child can turn into an addiction and lead to many problems, including those related to health. Speaking about computer, virtual addiction, it is necessary to understand that children in this regard are the most vulnerable, especially those aged 10 to 17 years. You can avoid the problem if you initially set the rules for using the computer.

Rules for using a computer for children:

Discovering for himself the knowledge of what a social network is, the child must understand that this is just an additional way of communication, but by no means the main and not alternative. The kid will be able to understand this only with the help of adults, who must show their child that reality is much more interesting than what he sees on the screen.