Manalapan Asks Parents To Ban Social Media Until Age 13

MANALAPAN, NJ — Would you sign a pledge to keep your kids off social media until age 13?

That's exactly what the superintendent of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District is asking parents to do. Superintendent John Marciante gave a talk to Manalapan parents Tuesday night at the Millford Brook elementary school, where he warned about the dangers of online bullying and sexual predators, and showed how to set up parental controls on their child's smartphone, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Then Marciante did something particularly unique: At the end of the presentation, he passed out a pledge sheet, asking parents to sign it and vow they will keep their kids off social media until age 13, according to the report.

Marciante said he's doing this after Clark Mills Elementary School in Manalapan was put on lockdown this past March. Patch reported on the incident at the time: A group of older teenager boys met a bunch of fifth-grade Manalapan girls on the app "HouseParty" and one of them threatened the girls he would come to their elementary school and start shooting. Prior to that, the older teens had made sexual comments to the young girls on the app.

While the threat was found to be non-credible, the rumor that there would be a shooting spread through Clark Mills like wildfire, and many fourth- and fifth-graders were crying in the cafeteria at lunchtime on the day this happened, March 29.

"Because parents allowed their 10-year-olds to be on a website that requires a waiver for anyone under 13, an entire district went on alert," a clearly-furious Marciante said at the time. "Remember when we would teach children not to talk to strangers? Now we look the other way while our 10-year-olds download the latest app that allows them to interact with anyone."

"There would have been no threat if those students were not in the chat room," Marciante said. "None of the fourth or fifth grade students at Clark Mills would have been crying at lunch or worrying about their safety."

Ongoing Patch reporting: Teens Threaten Manalapan Elementary Girls On App, District Says

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