So many of us have children. And many of us have Facebook. How many of our underage children have Facebook?
M is 12, and has Facebook. Originially she has signed up at her mother’s, using a fake name, but real things such as school name, and photos. When we found out, we showed her how we could have tracked her down using Facebook, without even being her friend! She agreed that it was silly to have it set up like that.
We helped her set up a real account, real name, but NO details at all, no school details, nothing that could actually be tracked down. She is now aware of the importance of this aspect of things, something her mother hadn’t talked to her about!
We have certain times she’s allowed on, and she asks before she befriends anyone, the deal is she must know them in real life.
Do you let your underage have an account, and why? What are your rules surrounding it?
Oh yes, you just have to be so careful. There are some weirdo’s out there!
Excellent post. And that does not only apply to under aged facebook users, I might add. Some adults post pictures of kids, taken with their cell – phone. Sometimes those pictures contain GPS data so it’s not very hard to fine out where the picture was taken.
Another problem with underage children being on Facebook, even if they think they know the person, is the bullying that is now going on. Yes, they can do it through texting and e-mails too, but Facebook has been the worst. I wouldn’t go against Facebook by allowing an underage child, but I see it all the time. In fact, I have some very young third cousins who have a Facebook account and they were blabbing phone numbers all over the place, until I warned them against it. I said send a personal message if you want to exchange numbers.
I think one of the biggest problems we had was not wanting to go against facebook, but knowing that she was going to do it anyway, if we didn’t let her.
My kids aren’t on it yet, but the oldest is 12 /1/2 and most of his friends of his age, and a few cousins are on it. I’m starting to think it might almost be time as long as I monitor it closely. Might be …but it still feels like a big step.
It is scary! It’s almost like they’re growing up! It caused no end of problems for us – and I regret it. I will not let the other kids on til they are 13 – and can say the law says 😉