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Use of Facebook by Children Aged 10 – 12 .
Presence in Social Media Despite the Prohibition
DOI: 10.15804/tner.2016.46.4.01
Abstract
Social media, such as Facebook, play an important role in human life. More
and more oen we can observe them also finding their way into the world
of children, who use them to achieve specific benefits. e research sample
consisted of children aged 10 – 12, namely those who – due to the restrictions
in the Facebook regulations – are not allowed to use it. e purpose of the
study was to identify the number of children aged 10 – 12 who use Facebook,
as well as how they use this medium. e research findings, obtained in the
diagnostic survey and the focus interview, indicate that: the vast majority of
the respondents have accounts on Facebook, and the older the child, the greater
the probability that he/she has his/her own profile. Girls have more friends and
photos on the Facebook profile than boys, and the number of friends grows
along with the users’ age. e research results presented in the article are the
benchmark for educational activities that should be undertaken in order to
regulate the usage of Facebook by children under 13 years of age.
Keywords: children aged 10 – 12, benefits, Facebook
Introduction – Theoretical Background for Selecting the Subject,
Terminological Findings
At present, new media are apermanent element of social and cultural func-
tioning of children (Huk, 2015). More and more oen, aspecial place in the areas
Tomasz Huk
Poland
18 Tomasz Huk
of use of the new media by children is taken by social networking portals, access
to which is obtained through mobile media, such as smartphones, tablets, and
laptops. Currently, Facebook is the most popular social website, which frequently
makes it an object of scientific research (Wilson, Gosling, Graham, 2012). Due to
the fact that the medium is intended for people over 13, research in this respect
is rarely conducted among the population of children aged 10 – 12. is problem
was highlighted by Anna Brosch (2016), describing asituation in which children
begin to function on the Internet for the first time. On the other hand, Mirosława
Wawrzak-Chodaczek (2004) emphasises the role of the Internet in fulfilling the
communication needs of teenagers. e author indicates that the Internet users
“manipulate their identity” in order to make other Web participants pay attention
to them. Manipulation is oen related to ascribing certain features thanks to which
the Internet user may be liked by other Internet users. e Polish research con-
ducted in this respect indicates that contemporary teenagers are “forced to literally
construct their identity by creating their profile: selecting photos, specifying pref-
erences, publishing general and casual self-descriptions” (Wójcik, 2013). anks
to the information provided by children and teenagers on such websites, we know
“who became whose friend, who ended their relationship with whom, who posted
pictures, who has alousy day […]”. Unfortunately, such information may be used
by all Web users – regardless of their age and intentions, e.g., for cyberbullying
(Kowalski, Limber, Agatston, 2010). e research conducted in 2010 among the
group of 9 – 16-year-olds indicates that 71% of the surveyed have aprofile on one
of the web portals. Additionally, on the basis of analyses, Katarzyna Makaruk
(2013) confirms that teenagers aged 14 – 17 actively participate in Internet com-
munities. Additionally, girls have social media profiles more oen than boys, and
girls devote more time to this kind of activity. e author also demonstrated the
relation between the frequency of using the social media and the dysfunctional
use of the Internet, as well as the psychological and social problems found in those
Internet users. On the other hand, the research findings presented by Magdalena
Wasylewicz (2011) describe agroup of secondary school students, who, as it seems,
did not have ahabit of repeatedly visiting the social media website. It turns out that
34% of the surveyed students visit such websites several times aweek, 29% – once
aday, and 22% – once aweek. We should add that these results may apply to the
period (before 2011) when social networking portals were not as popular as they
are now. In the opinion of Manfred Spitzer (2015), “for children, replacing real
interpersonal contacts with Internet portals [Facebook] may lead in the long run
to reducing the social modules in their brains. erefore, there is ahazard that, in
the future, Facebook and other similar websites may lead to shrinkage of entire
19Use of Facebook by Children Aged 10 – 12
areas of our brains responsible for social functions.” e basis for the formulated
theses may be the use of Facebook among children aged 10 – 12 who make it
ahabit to check their profiles within short time intervals, using asmartphone in
every possible place (e.g., at school), adding messages, photos, browsing profiles,
posts, and commenting on those posts on the social media sites. ey begin to
ascribe value to the number of “likes” under their own posts and the number of
friends in their friend lists.
It was expressed to the fullest extent by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan (2011), who
believe that when we become dependent, e.g., on repeatedly checking for new posts
on Facebook, the executive area of the brain, called the anterior cingulate cortex,
loses control. is area is located in the front part of the brain, responsible for
decision-making and judgment. e authors claim that addiction therapy should
include not only regulating production of dopamine, but also strengthening the
nerve circuits of the anterior cingulate cortex, and thus it is astrictly psychiatric
activity, going beyond pedagogical activities.
An important phenomenon in the context of the use of social media is the lack
of Internet access and the related fear of missing out, called “FoMo”. Spitzer (2016)
points out that “since the beginning of social networks, where millions of people
constantly do something and inform others about it, this fear has greatly inten-
sified”. Young people want to be kept up-to-date with the information published
by their peers on social websites, since they are the topic of conversations held in
the virtual world and in the real one, ensuring aspecific social position among the
group of friends.
Constantly and excessively repeated activities related to the use of digital media,
which give pleasure to the young user and let him or her “detach” from the real
problems, may lead to addiction. erefore, digital media have ahigh addictive
potential that is based on “high unpredictability of events”. Additionally, the
emergence of social media, such as Facebook, creates an opportunity for such
asituation to appear among children. “Social networking portals have astrong
influence on young people and force them to almost constantly be on the Internet,
in fear that they would miss some event” (Spitzer, 2015). Despite anumber of
negative aspects, education concerns the use of Facebook in developing attitudes
(Rosen et al., 2013), knowledge and skills among children and teenagers, which
at present seems to be more efficient than using the traditional teaching methods
(Frania, 2014).
20 Tomasz Huk
Research Methodology
e research area Iexplore is acertain section of reality concerning participa-
tion of children aged 10 – 12 in the Internet social media networks. An example of
this section is Facebook – asocial network, which may be used by people above 13
years of age. e scarce research conducted in this field indicates that such services
are also used by younger children (Makaruk, 2013). erefore, it is important to
undertake studies that would contribute to diagnosing this phenomenon among
children below 13, as well as to expanding the scientific knowledge in this respect.
Iformulated the research problems on the basis of the “uses and gratifications
theory”, pursuant to which “using the media is determined by gaining asense
of satisfaction from them, by the needs, wishes or motives of apotential user”.
e basic needs in this case are: “information, the need for relaxation, company,
entertainment or »escape«” (McQuail, 2008). On the basis of the aforementioned
theory, Iformulated the research problem: Do children aged 10 – 12 use Facebook,
and if so – how?
e conducted research was quantitative and qualitative. In order to answer
the research problems, Iused: asurvey questionnaire addressed to children aged
10 – 12, afocus interview with children aged 10 – 12, an interview with the parents
of the examined pupils, as well as aquantitative analysis of the Facebook profiles
belonging to children aged 10 – 12. Irandomly selected the sample, in which the
general population consisted of children aged 10 – 12, attending one of the Polish
schools. e sampling frame constituted the list of children attending the given
school, and thus the results obtained in the study may be generalised only for the
general population of this school or very similar populations. Assuming the level
of significance α=0.05 and the estimate error level e=0.05, Iset the minimum
sample size as 157 children. e questionnaire covered 71 girls and 86 boys. e
focus interview was conducted with 10 children with their own Facebook profiles
and 2 parents of the children from the focus group. Due to the children’s attribute,
namely having aFacebook profile, Iselected the respondents for the interview in
apurposeful manner, on the basis of the data obtained from the questionnaire.
Ianalysed 113 profiles of children aged 10 – 12, originating from the general pop-
ulation, who had aFacebook account.
e children came from aPolish town with 360 thousand inhabitants. eir
families belong to the middle class. e obtained results underwent statistical
analysis. In order to determine the relation between the age of the children taking
part in the study and the surveyed having aFacebook account, the χ² test was used.
In turn, in order to determine the correlation between the selected variables, Iused
21Use of Facebook by Children Aged 10 – 12
Pearson’s r formula. Ialso calculated the relation between the studied variables. For
statistical calculations, Iused the Statistica program, version 12.
Results
In the study, the pupils were asked to state if they had aFacebook profile
(Table 1). In the examined sample, 71.97% of the pupils admitted that they had
aFacebook profile, including 87.5% of children aged 12. Analysis of the results
in this respect indicates that the number of Facebook profile holders increases
along with age. At this point, it should be emphasised that aprofile on this social
networking site may be held by people who are at least 13 years of age – as stated
in the regulations. erefore, the vast majority of the respondents have aFacebook
account, despite the restrictions of the website’s regulations. We can thus state that,
when setting up the profile, they stated untrue data related to their age. e results
obtained in the diagnostic survey underwent astatistical analysis. An alternative
hypothesis was adopted, indicating that the age of the examined person influences
holding aFacebook profile. Since χ² emp> χ² tab (13.7>7.815), it is determined with
the probability of 0.95 that there are grounds to reject H0. is means that the
older the child, the greater the likelihood of him/her having aFacebook account.
e research did not demonstrate any statistically significant differences between
having aFacebook account by girls (71.83%) and by boys (72.09%).
Table 1. Children having a Facebook account, with breakdown into age N=157
Age 10 years 11 years 12 years Tota l
N%N%N%N%
With aFB account 32 59.26 25 64.10 56 87.5 113 71.97
Without aFB account 22 40.74 14 35.90 8 12.5 44 28.03
Source: the author’s own studies
Analysis of Facebook accounts of the examined children indicates that the
average number of Facebook friends grows along with age (Table 2). 10-year-old
children have on average 108 friends, 11-year-olds – 180, and 12-year-olds – 201
friends. Girls have on average more friends (180) than boys (156). e analysis
also covered the number of photos posted by the user and photos with the user’s
face. e examined children on average have 40 photos on their profiles, including
on average 15 photos containing the face of the examined children. e girls have
22 Tomasz Huk
more photos on their profiles (49) than the boys (33). e photographs of the
examined girls also more oen present their faces (23) than the photographs of the
examined boys (9). e obtained results indicate that the number of photos posted
on Facebook by children increases along with age. is trend persists also in the
case of photographs with the user on them. An important element of Facebook’s
functioning is obtaining and leaving “likes”. On average, the respondents receive
180 “likes” under the published photos. is number increases along with the age
of the users; agreat difference can be observed between the “likes” received by
the surveyed girls (245) and by the surveyed boys (90). Ihave observed asimilar
situation in the case of “likes” obtained under posts published by the surveyed.
erefore, the number of obtained “likes” increases along with age, and the average
number of obtained “likes” is greater in the case of the examined girls (349) than
the examined boys (132).
Table 2. Variables concerning the analysed Facebook profiles of children aged
10 – 12, N=113
Age 10
years
11
years
12
years Tot a l
Average number of friends 108 180 201 169
Average number of photos posted by the user 13 43 54 40
Average number of photos posted by the user which include
the user
7 13 20 15
Average number of all “likes” under the user’s photos 53 139 231 160
Average number of “likes” under the user’s posts 79 176 341 230
Average period of the profile’s functioning in months 20 30 32 28
Source: the author’s own studies
Among the drawn sample, almost all the respondents gave their true full name
in their profile. e average time the examined have been present on Facebook is
28 months. 12-year-olds have been present on Facebook the longest. No significant
difference in this respect has been observed between the surveyed girls and boys.
Table 3 presents the use of Facebook by the surveyed children. It turns out
that 70.8% of the surveyed leave “likes” under photos, posts, videos of other users.
e second most oen performed activity on Facebook is “posting photos” –
39.82% of the surveyed. e respondents successively indicated: “commenting on
posts and photos of other users” – 31.86% of the surveyed, “browsing profiles of
other users” – 26.55%, “publishing posts” – 21.24%, “leaving friend invitations”
23Use of Facebook by Children Aged 10 – 12
– 15.93%, “searching for friends” 13.27%. e respondents most rarely publish
videos – 7.08%. In five out of eight categories, the examined girls performed the
specified activities on Facebook more oen than the boys. On the other hand, the
activities performed on Facebook more oen by the boys than by the girls include:
“browsing profiles of other persons”, “publishing posts”, and “publishing videos”.
Table 3. The use of Facebook among children aged 10, 11 and 12, N=113
Age/Gender 10 years 11 years 12 years Girls Boys To t a l
N%N%N%N%N%N%
Ileave “likes”
under photos,
posts, videos of
other people
18 56.25 18 72 44 78.57 39 76.47 41 66.19 80 70.80
Ipublish photos 9 28.13 12 48 24 42.85 23 45.1 22 35.48 45 39.82
Icomment on
posts and photos
of other people
8 25 9 36 19 33.93 17 33.33 19 30.65 36 31.86
Ibrowse other
people’s profiles
5 15.63 6 24 19 33.93 10 19.61 20 32.26 30 26.55
Ipublish my
own posts
6 18.75 6 24 12 21.43 8 15.69 16 25.81 24 21.24
Iinvite people to
the group of my
friends
4 12.5 2 8 12 21.43 10 19.61 8 12.90 18 15.93
Isearch for
friends
5 15.63 3 12 7 12.5 7 13.72 8 12.90 15 13.27
Ipublish videos 3 9.38 1 4 4 7.14 2 3.92 6 9.68 8 7.08
Source: the author’s own studies
e focus interviews conducted with children aged 10, 11 and 12 allowed for
formulating conclusions, which expanded on the questionnaire answers described
above and the analysis of Facebook profiles. e reasons for not having aFace-
book account among the group of 10-year-olds are first of all associated with age
restrictions and prohibitions of their parents. Few answers indicated other reasons.
One of the children said: “Idon’t want to have aFacebook account, because Iam
not 13 years old. Because someone may call us names and hate us. Someone may
call us stupid, ugly and fat. Someone may keep sending us spam”. e group of
10-year-olds also includes those with their own profiles. eir answers indicate
24 Tomasz Huk
that they are aware of the prohibition related to the user’s age, which they broke.
ese answers indicate obtaining some benefits related to the use of social media.
A10 year-old girl argues for having aFacebook profile: “Ican contact my friend
through Facebook. Ionly accept those friends Iknow in real life. Ibrowse You-
tubers’ posts. rough Facebook Iaccess Messenger, where Ican talk with my
friends, my mom, my parents, but not with strangers. When Ipublish my photos,
they are not detailed.”
e 11- and 12-year-old children who participated in the study in their answers
did not justify their illegal setting-up of aFacebook account, since this medium is
used for communicating with their peers and building friendships.
e group of parents has both opponents and proponents of a10 – 12-year-old
child having aFacebook account. In the conducted interview, one of the mothers
admitted that she had set up aFacebook account for her 10-year-old daughter
herself, because she did not want her daughter to be rejected by her school peers.
e mother stated that she had full control over her daughter’s account and she
reacted on acurrent basis to any threats created by other users of this website.
On the other hand, the reasoning of the mother who opposed to her daughter
having aFacebook account was justified by protecting the daughter against
unwanted content and vulgar posts and photos published by others. e interview
was attended by parents who were unable to answer whether their children had
aFacebook account, since they had never asked their children about that and had
not talked with them about this topic.
e conducted research also covered astatistical analysis of selected variables
concerning Facebook profiles belonging to the examined children aged 10 – 12
(Table 4). Using Pearson’s r correlation, assuming p<0.05, it was examined whether
there is astatistically important correlation between the variables. e obtained
results indicate that apositive correlation exists between all variables, and thus
the value of one variable increases along with the value of another variable. e
correlation coefficients occur within the range of aweak correlation to anearly
complete correlation (Guilford, 1964).
e largest coefficient value occurs between the “Number of all »likes« le
on Facebook under the photos of the examined children” and the “Number of
all »likes« le on Facebook under the posts of the examined children”. We can
observe anearly complete correlation in this case, which indicates the following
relationship: the examined children, who obtain alot of “likes” under their photos,
also obtain alot of “likes” under their posts. Another nearly complete correlation
can be observed in the case of the following variables: “Number of photos posted
by the user, which include the user” and “Number of all »likes« under the user’s
25Use of Facebook by Children Aged 10 – 12
posts”. We can assume that the number of photos with the user contributes to the
increase in the number of “likes” le under the Facebook user’s posts. is relation
is not by any means obvious, since we can encounter asituation in which achild
posts alot of photos on his or her Facebook account and publishes many posts,
which do not receive many “likes” due to low popularity of the child among the
Internet friends. Avery high correlation can be also observed in the case of the
following variables: “Number of photos posted by the user, which include the user”
and “Number of all »likes« under the user’s photos”. is correlation indicates that
Facebook friends mainly leave “likes” under photos which include the owner of
agiven profile. According to the research, children aged 10 – 12 mainly post photos
including their faces, which is indicated by another observed “high correlation”
between the “Number of all photos” and the “Number of photos with the profile
owner’s face”. In addition, the “Number of photos posted by the surveyed on Face-
Table 4. Pearson’s r correlation between variables related to Facebook profiles
belonging to children aged 10 – 12, p < 0.05, N=113
Number of
photos posted
by the user
Number of
photos posted
by the user,
which include
the user
Number of all
“likes” under
the user’s
posts
Period of
the profile’s
functioning
in months
Number of all
“likes” under
the user’s
photos
Number of
friends
0.247347 0.434746 0.553044 0.371667 0.575075
Number of
photos posted by
the user
-0.753011 0.650170 0.294312 0.648129
Number of
photos posted by
the user, which
include the user
- - 0.948246 0.252100 0.918117
Number of all
“likes” under the
user’s posts
---0.230072 0.980232
Period of
the profile’s
functioning in
months
- - - - 0.230360
Source: the author’s own studies.
26 Tomasz Huk
book” positively correlates with the “Number of obtained »likes« under posts and
under those photos”. e more the photos and posts, the more the “likes” obtained.
e statistical analysis indicated that the “Number of Facebook friends” correlates
with the “Number of obtained »likes« under the user’s photos and posts” – it is
ahigh correlation. On the other hand, the “Number of friends” shows an average
correlation with the “Number of photos” with the user and the “Period of the
profile’s functioning”. Aweak correlation can be observed between: – “Number
of friends” and “Number of photos posted on Facebook”; – “Number of photos,
including photos showing the user” and “Period of the profile’s functioning”; –
“Number of obtained »likes«” and “Period of the profile’s functioning”; – “Number
of obtained »likes« under photos” and “Period of the profile’s functioning”.
Conclusions
e conducted research allowed for describing the reality related to the use
of social media by children aged 10 – 12, despite the commonly prevailing prohi-
bition. is situation creates many problems, which are consciously ignored by
Facebook administrators, and also by parents and teachers. Especially the latter
should have ahigh level of competence concerning the children’s participation
in the cyberspace (Juszczyk, Kim, 2015). e essence of the problem involves
positive benefits gained by children under 13 years of age when using social
media, which they are not allowed to use. Let us not forget that the examined
children aged 10 – 12 use Facebook because it results from their natural need
to build social interactions with their peers. is thesis is consistent with the
“use and benefits theory”, the assumptions of which are based on the positive
aspect of using the media in order to search for information, build the person’s
own identity and social relations and fulfil their needs related to spending free
time. erefore, steps should be taken which would allow for resolving the legal
conflict related to the use of Facebook by children under 13, as well as for devel-
opment of an educational programme, the main objective of which would be
for 10 – 12-year-old users to gain competences concerning the proper use of the
social media. Such aprogramme should be included in the obligatory educational
content implemented in Polish schools.
27Use of Facebook by Children Aged 10 – 12
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