More than half of children in school will be
studyingFacebookrather than lessons, says a new study of more than 1,000 UK
pupils.
Global Secure Systems (GSS),
an IT security consultancy, found 52% of the 1,000 children aged
between 13 and 17 who participated in the study confessed that they
looked at social networking sites during lessons.
The survey, conducted through Facebook, aimed to discover just
how widespread children's use of such sites at inappropriate times
was. More than a quarter said they were Facebooking in class for
more than 30 minutes a day.
David Hobson, managing director of GSS, made the initial
discovery when he spent a day at a local public school speaking to
its pupils about internet ethics and behaviour. During his
presentation to 13-year-olds, who were all diligently tapping away
on their laptops, he asked how many had visited social networking
sites during their lessons. He was shocked when they all raised
their hands. This ignited his determination to uncover if this was
an isolated case or whether it was rife among school children.
"I am disturbed, but not surprised, by the findings," he said.
He was concerned for the safety of youngsters on the web and
worried by time lost for lessons.
"The time youngsters spend on the internet, and more
specifically on social networking sites, is a huge challenge for
parents and those of us in education," said Toby Mullins, head of
Seaford College.
"Youngsters are not only using lesson time but often quietly
continue late into the night, leaving them short of sleep and
irritable the next day. I think a study like this to highlight the
problem is very timely. We now need to plan for a solution."
Hobson said, "Kids are spending up to 2.5 hours a week of
lessons on Facebook. I recognise that there is a place for social
networking, with a whole new generation now relying on it to
communicate, but not at the expense of an education. Schools could
learn a lesson from industry and ensure school children use the
internet productively. With the right software it is easy to limit
access to inappropriate websites or limit it to break-time."
A separate GSS poll conducted with
Infosecurity Europe 2008
discovered that social networking sites, such as Facebook,
MySpace and
Bebo are costing UK corporations
close to £6.5 billion a year in lost productivity.
GSS itself clamped down on social networking during working
hours. When asked for more bandwidth, Hobson analysed the company's
traffic and discovered that it could save the cost of the upgrade
simply by restricting the times people could access social network
sites to lunchtimes and after hours.