A few weeks ago, I wrote about the infiltration of Facebook, MySpace and Bebo in the schools for The Times. Today, Ofcom is putting stats to this observation. Half of all children between the ages of 8 and 17
active online have a profile on a social network. And, incredibly, one-quarter of all Britons aged 8 to 11 are active in these networks, the BBC reports. Here’s a closer look at the Ofcom findings:

The findings are bound to trigger tighter regulations for social networks to verify the ages of its users. To be fair, the social networks do pull offline all under-age users, but it’s obviously not working.

The encouraging news is that Ofcom says more than one-in-five Britons over the age of 16 have an online profile. This agitates some educators who find it difficult to compete in the classroom with students constantly updating their profiles. I say, academia should avoid demonising the technology and find a way to incorporate it into the classroom.

– Bernhard