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2016考研備戰(zhàn)進(jìn)入后期階段，每天讀篇英語時(shí)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(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)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(tuán)最近在一篇報(bào)告中聲稱，年齡在65歲及以上的美國人，每三個(gè)當(dāng)中就有一個(gè)正在使用社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。但他們的行為跟目前低齡的網(wǎng)絡(luò)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(wǎng)絡(luò)。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(xiǎn)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(yīng)付社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。同樣讓他們擔(dān)心的是，F(xiàn)acebook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(tuán)體兒童在線的負(fù)責(zé)人Doug Fodeman稱，“這樣做可能是將孩子推向風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，引狼入室”。

另一個(gè)棘手的問題是，F(xiàn)acebook該怎樣做才算遵守旨在保護(hù)13歲以下小孩使用網(wǎng)絡(luò)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(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)，服務(wù)商在收集其數(shù)據(jù)前，必須征得相關(guān)兒童父母的同意。同時(shí)，家長必須能回看自己小孩的數(shù)據(jù)，而且在其認(rèn)為有必要時(shí)可以刪除這些數(shù)據(jù)。這樣費(fèi)力的任務(wù)再加上COPPA的其他條款，很好地解釋了為什么社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)運(yùn)營商們總是可以地避開低齡群體。Facebook堅(jiān)持要求，其用戶必須年滿13歲。

另一個(gè)小問題是低齡兒童通過撒謊來隱瞞實(shí)際年齡。根據(jù)《消費(fèi)者報(bào)告》一項(xiàng)研究提供的數(shù)據(jù)，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(xiàng)針對美國家長的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，父母通常知道自己的孩子在申請F(tuán)acebook賬號時(shí)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(guān)部門的監(jiān)管人員也了解到了該現(xiàn)象。Facebook目前的“沉默”可能也反映出他們害怕公司會因?yàn)椴蛔鳛槎�惹來麻煩。該公司已�?jīng)針對13~17歲之間兒童用戶的隱私設(shè)置做出了些許強(qiáng)化。但是來自阿拜恩網(wǎng)絡(luò)客戶隱私權(quán)利公司的Sarah Downey認(rèn)為，針對低齡兒童用戶，F(xiàn)acebook還需要大大加強(qiáng)其現(xiàn)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(shí)處，為你的考試加分!