Facebook and most other social networks ask you to be 13 before you are able to hold an account with them. This leaves a lot of parents in a very awkward position with children younger than 13 wanting and joining these networks. It isn't just the trouble of monitoring what your child is looking at its also the possibility of inappropriate interaction and bullying. Well a start up in in Israel believe they have the answer.
Itay Eshet has created the first ever preteen social network called Nipagesh, translated from Hebrew it means "lets meet". Eshet says that his network trains the future Facebook users how to be smart online and teaches them the dangers of social media. This is the clever part of Nipagesh, an individual can not sign up only a school can. Once a school has signed up they are able to give students log in details. This also means a user would only be interacting with someone that is a child as well.
A screen grab of Nipagesh's chat feature. When a school joins the network, its entire student body, along with parents and teachers, are signed up at once. Children can flag posts that make them uncomfortable.
Courtesy of Itay Eshet
So far 100 schools have signed up. Fifth-graders at Reut Regional Elementary School in central Israel like it. One student says she plays lots of games on Nipagesh and makes new friends there, while another says any bullying is quickly stopped.
Teachers and parents are also automatically made members also. With a report button on every page it is very easy to report a problem with something that has been seen by a user. Nipagesh also users algorithms to detect inappropriate posts and alerts administrators straight away.
"Kids like to report," says Eshet, adding that sometimes teachers have used such alerts to start classroom discussions. "It's a great way to learn what to report and what not to report. We are here to teach them."
Parents and Teachers are able to see what is posted on walls however in a private message unless reported this message will remain private however, the algorithm still runs which creates alerts and also, parents and teachers are able to find out who has speaking to who. So their is still some privacy on Nipagesh.
There is a lot of possibilities for Nipagesh and could be used socially as well as academically, currently it is only available in Israel for schools and is free to subscribe to. But how long will it be till Nipagesh or something similar hits the western world to teach children the proper and correct way to use social networks.
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