Facebook to lift its ban on users under 13: your thoughts?

The ONLY reason Facebook's cutoff is a rather arbitrary 13 is because that is the age at which teens start secondary school in the US (Grade 9). The age was imported over here without amendment for the UK mRket, as so many things are. So on that basis, the UK Facebook age should be 11.

Not saying that they should or shouldn't change the age, I'm just sayin' like...

Anyone thinking HabboYou Hotel might be a better bet than FB for their kids, check out Channel 4 News today 7pm.

It is about as unsafe a place as you can imagine. See the today's thread in _Chat, Do your kids us Habbo Hotel? Here

I let my 9 year old daughter use my fb account 'chat' to talk to her aunts, uncles and cousins around the world. it is easier than email and when Daddy is overseas fbchat or skype are far more reliable than a phone line. But I set it up, it is on my account so i can see it and she is only talking to relatives. She knows she cannot have an account and seems to be happy with using mine but secondary school isn't too far away and I am sure the nagging will start then.

I know 8 yr olds with accounts. It won't make any difference.

Yes, I am breaking the age limit. It isn't a law from my POV. My children know that it was my decision and that, as an adult, I can decide whether a rule is absolute or has a little flexibility - so in this case it means me monitoring their use.

The same would apply to alcohol - they absolutely can not buy it but I wouldn't have a problem with letting them try it in the safe environment of our own home.

...but you're all still breaking the no under 13's rule are you not, and your kids will know you are, or are you just breaking the rules responsibly?.....just playing devils advocate here....I love a good debate

The thing is everything is becoming more like an open social network - e.g. Skype, gmail etc.. You have a profile and can be contacted by people you don't know of you have the preferences set up that way.

Keeping kids off FB until they are 13 because it's the rules doesn't keep them out of danger. Better to teach them to use it openly and safely and not to get too addicted.

My under 13s have FB - I mainly cringe at the spelling and inanity.

You and your children are the product/ commodity that FB sells to others of which you have NO control over.

But you do have control by deciding what information to share.

"I would add that the those that say everyone is on it, get used to it, it's not going away, if properly monitored it's fine, they need to learn from a young age so they will be protected, I trust my child yada yada yada are the ones who need to be educated about the consequences of having your life looked at thtougj a looking glass by your peers without the emotional maturity to deal with it."

I'm not so please try not to make sweeping generalisations.

"but I would bet most of the parents used their own correct dob when they registered themselves put in their school, place of work etc < duh emoticon>"

So? Plenty of places have my DOB etc. Mind you, I post nothing of any great volume or note on my FB account. I assume you don't use loyalty cards or credit cards etc.

You might enjoy the idea behind the book "Brand Loyalty"

Spot on kaumana

In other words:

You and your children are the product/ commodity that FB sells to others of which you have NO control over.

Gymbob- I'm with you and landrover on this.
I would add that the those that say everyone is on it, get used to it, it's not going away, if properly monitored it's fine, they need to learn from a young age so they will be protected, I trust my child yada yada yada are the ones who need to be educated about the consequences of having your life looked at thtougj a looking glass by your peers without the emotional maturity to deal with it.

Those who have posted their instances of where FB has had a negative impact on their children are far nearer the mark.

FB is a listed company which only answers to its shareholders, why anyone would lie about their childs age in order to give away details of their children for free to a company to do with as they please is beyond me..... but I would bet most of the parents used their own correct dob when they registered themselves put in their school, place of work etc < duh emoticon>

If parents are setting it up for the DCs then its hardly teaching DCs to lie - besides - IME - IE not realising & putting in the wrong date - meant I had to swap e-mails with FB staff, explaining I was setting it up & monitoring it for my DD in order to get DDs FB okayed - so it's hardly teaching my DD to lie

FTR - our Cat has a FB page too - she's under 13

I'm right with you on that landrover. If no under 13's is the rule, then that's the rule, it doesn't matter what the button to click is dressed up like. We as parents are surely responsible for teaching our children to live by the rules. It must be okay to do it if everyone else is - that seems to be the mentality.

The whole of the internet is a dangerous place for children if not properly supervised.

Our local Police gave an interesting but worrying talk on internet safety.

Moshie Monsters is especially worrying.

If a mobile phone photo is posted on the net, then the GPS co ordinates can be obtained, typed into Google Maps and the exact location of the photo will appear. A fav trick of paedophiles.

I dislike FB but the whole of the internet is a worry IMO.

I'm not sure a big thing is made of that button, landrover. It's not in neon pink, flashing 'Click here to teach your children to tell whoppers' .....

Most children wouldn't even realise, or care.

I still dont understand though that parents are clicking on the "i am over 13" button in front of their kids, presumably showing them that it is ok to lie?

Oh, and on the 'Strict Mum' comment:....I wrote the book!

Some people here are thinking in extremes; Handled properly, monitored properly, Facebook is Okay you know. It's not going anywhere, believe me. Better to be fully informed, fully up to speed with it all now than have a blanket ban which will only cause problems further down the line.

My eldest DD is 11, and I am one of the few parents from her class who have yet to allow their child to have a FB account. I have been v. honest with her and one of my good reasons for her not having an account is that she is not old enough according to the rules and therefore if she is on, people have every right to assume she is older than she is.
Interestingly, she actually told me that she is glad she has the excuse of a 'strict mum' because lots of her peers are putting pressure on her to get an account and she doesn't want one because she has had a couple of good friends who have been v. upset by comments that have been posted by others. One friend also had a v. unpleasant experience which actually turned out to be someone she knew - but she didn't know that.
However much we talk to pre-teens about safety etc, etc they are still children and they still need us as adults to protect them.
Anyway, if they have a mobile phoe, a laptop, a FB account etc, etc, etc before theyeven hit your teens, what is going to get them excited next? That is what is most worrying for me! For goodness sake, let them wair for some things!

Whilst Facebook still refuses to clamp down on groups which incite hatred and violence then no child should be allowed to join.

Yes I know Facebook say that you can report such groups, but I've done this in the past and weeks later that group is still going. I can cite one about hitting pregnant women, raping pregnant women and the Ched Evans support group where plenty of men all agreed that raping a drunk woman was a typical one night stand.

The BNP have a Facebook Group in which followers blame "immigrants" for all the ills of the world and use terms such as "Gollywog" to describe them.

Should our kids be exposed to this shite? No.

Yes parents should keep a better eye on them but most parents can't even figure out their own privacy settings let alone those of their kids.

I know too that Facebook currently does nothing to stop children under the age of 13 signing up. I once reported my niece, who was 11 at the time, she had 1,500 followers most of which were Eastern European men and had posted pics of herself in her underwear. Facebook did nothing and she kept using her account. Her parents just saw it as harmless fun unfortunately.

This should not be allowed until Facebook shakes itself up and is able to offer protection for children against predators, cyber-bullying and hate groups. I'd like to see special children's facebook accounts for under 16s which comes with all privacy settings already in place along with parental control type add-on which prevents kids from accessing hate-filled groups.

But of course Facebook won't do any of this because they just want to target more youngsters with advertising and get a tidy profit. They shurk their responsibilites under the guise "freedom of speech" and have made it very clear that their customers come second, profit comes first.

Its a bad move and I will keep my children off Facebook for ever if I possibly can.

Interestingly, a few days ago Facebook listed its shares ON NASDAQ (US stockmarket) and the price has now fallen 18% under the initial offer price. Some people think that its membership numbers and profitability growth may be slowing. Adding under 13 yr olds would offset any slowing growth.

When my son was 11, Farmville was all the rage and he asked for an account so that we and his friends could play it together. I set the account up as if he were 13, and we played for months. he lost interest eventually, after a couple of other similar games. When he left primary school, almost the whole class had accounts and friended each other before they all split up and went to varoius secondary schools.

He rarely uses it, I monitor it weekly or so then occasionally remind him to respond to stuff (I have access to his Facebook and email). Twice I've dealt with inappropriate friending requests, in nearly three years. He barely uses it, but some of his friends, particularly the girls, seem to live there.

On the whole I am OK with pre-teens having accounts, but perhaps they should have different (tighter) default security settings and less advertising allowed on their pages. Maybe shackled to a parental account too, with full access always allowed by that parental account, pre-teen unable to change security settings to block parental oversight.

I don't think 13 is a safe age to have an un- monitered face book

But is it a safe age to have ANY unsupervised internet access ??

it's NOT - IMHO FB is no different to ANY internet use, its up to us as parents to oversea our DCs use & in doing that, FB is perfectly safe for our DCs - I also believe, as is borne out by many pro posts here, that ALLOWING it young & monitoring it, makes it far less alluring to DCs & they are far less obsessed by it - my DD really isn't fussed by it at all & is very aware of the dangers - the same as ALL of the DCs we personally know whose parents take the sensible approach & see starting young as an opportunity to instil good sensible internet use habits, before the stroppy teen raises its head :)

When DS2 left primary school he was one of only 3 children going to his high school (C of E very highly rated and hard to get in to) any the rest of his friends were devided between the two local high schools. Almost every child in his class already had face book and he ask could he have an account to keep in contact with his friends. I opened him one BUT he does not have the password, if he wants to look at it (and TBH he hardly ever does) I log him and and sit with him. The amount of activity from his friends is staggering, the are never off of it. (DS2 will be 12 this tear)

I don't think 13 is a safe age to have an nu- monitered face book