Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Like it or not (place this father defiantly in the “not” category), children are using the Internet’s social network sites at a younger age, with retail marketers hovering close by. How young?

New stats show 17 percent of boys aged 10-12 used such sites last year, which is more than double the 8 percent who used social sites in 2006, according to the Harris Poll. For 10-12-year-old girls, the figure is 27 percent, more than 2-and-a-half times the prior year’s 11 percent. In the 13-15-year category, boys jump to 46 percent and girls jump to 54 percent. Oddly enough, that 54 percent for 13-to-15-year-old girls actually dropped three percent from 2006.