Digital Natives 3.0: Social Network Initiation

Abstract

As generalize access to the internet becomes a reality in industrialized countries, the nature of children’s social network sites (SNS) use generates concerns and requires parental different approach. The body of empirical work reviewed is still small and to develop and promote a realistic understanding of children and young adolescence behavior on online social network sites and parenting surveillance of kids’ online presence, this study examines (a) who children initiate online activity and their main preferences and (b) how parental supervision techniques are applied to children’s online presence. For this purpose we choose one of the most popular social network site, Facebook, and inquiry parents and kids under 13 years old (digital natives 3.0), regarding to their use. This study adds to a growing literature on young people usage of social networking technologies, specially unveiling some of the patterns of under-age kids using SNS.