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2016考研備戰(zhàn)進入后期階段，每天讀篇英語時文，既可以保持語感，又能提高閱讀水平、鍛煉閱讀速度，可謂一舉多得。今天給大家推薦一篇來自《經濟學人》的文章，希望對你有所幫助。

【正文】

One American in three aged 65 or older uses networks, says a new report by the Pew Research Center, a think-tank. But it is the small surfers, not the silver ones, who are currently making waves. Facebook is examining ways to allow children under the age of 13 to use its service, with some form of parental supervision. If this happens—and Facebook stresses that it has not yet decided whether to go ahead—it would be a venture into uncharted territory.

Critics howl that young children lack the maturity to cope with social networks. They also worry that Facebook will find devious ways to make money from naive children, or, more likely, their parents. “We would be giving the keys to the chicken coop to the fox,” says Doug Fodeman of ChildrenOnline.org, a pressure group.

There is also the thorny question of how Facebook could comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act(COPPA)in America, which was designed to protect children under 13 as they use the internet. The law stipulates that online services with youngsters among their customers must obtain the consent of the children’s parents before collecting data from them. Parents also need to be able to review their children’s data and have these delete if they so wish. The onerous nature of these and other COPPA provisions explains why social networks have tended to shun the young. Facebook insists that you have to be 13 to use its service.

The snag is that children fib about their age. A study by Consumer Reports found that 5.6m children under 13 were using Facebook in America alone. Another survey of American parents found that adults often knew that their children were less than 13 when they joined Facebook. In many cases, the parents helped them to set up their accounts.

Regulators have noticed. Facebook’s current musings may reflects the fear that the firm will run into trouble if it does nothing. It already has slightly more robust privacy settings for children between the ages of 13 and 17. But it would need a far tighter regime for younger children, says Sarah Downey of Abine, an online consumer privacy company.

【參考譯文】

一家名為皮優(yōu)研究中心的智囊團最近在一篇報告中聲稱，年齡在65歲及以上的美國人，每三個當中就有一個正在使用社交網絡。但他們的行為跟目前低齡的網絡弄潮兒相比只是小打小鬧。Facebook正在策劃如何讓13歲以下的兒童在父母某種形式的監(jiān)督下使用網絡。雖然Facebook一再聲稱暫未確定是否付諸行動，但是一旦采取行動，它將開啟一段充滿未知因素的冒險旅程。

評論家大聲疾呼，稱低齡兒童缺乏足夠成熟的心智來應付社交網絡。同樣讓他們擔心的是，Facebook可能會絞盡腦汁從那些單純的小孩身上，或者他們的父母身上撈錢。壓力團體兒童在線的負責人Doug Fodeman稱，“這樣做可能是將孩子推向風險，引狼入室”。

另一個棘手的問題是，Facebook該怎樣做才算遵守旨在保護13歲以下小孩使用網絡的《美國兒童在線隱私保障法》呢?該法律規(guī)定對于13歲以下兒童使用互聯網服務，服務商在收集其數據前，必須征得相關兒童父母的同意。同時，家長必須能回看自己小孩的數據，而且在其認為有必要時可以刪除這些數據。這樣費力的任務再加上COPPA的其他條款，很好地解釋了為什么社交網絡運營商們總是可以地避開低齡群體。Facebook堅持要求，其用戶必須年滿13歲。

另一個小問題是低齡兒童通過撒謊來隱瞞實際年齡。根據《消費者報告》一項研究提供的數據，僅僅美國地區(qū)就有56萬13歲以下的兒童正在使用Facebook。而另一項針對美國家長的研究發(fā)現，父母通常知道自己的孩子在申請Facebook賬號時未滿13歲。在眾多案例中，倒是家長幫助子女注冊了Facebook賬號。

相關部門的監(jiān)管人員也了解到了該現象。Facebook目前的“沉默”可能也反映出他們害怕公司會因為不作為而惹來麻煩。該公司已經針對13~17歲之間兒童用戶的隱私設置做出了些許強化。但是來自阿拜恩網絡客戶隱私權利公司的Sarah Downey認為，針對低齡兒童用戶，Facebook還需要大大加強其現有的管理辦法。

希望大家讀過文章之后能夠把握文中的生詞和句子，不要只是泛泛地讀，讓閱讀真正落到實處，為你的考試加分!