Facebook, Bebo, Myspace - are your kids on it - what age should they be allowed to start?

my ds is 12 at Chrsitmas and I didn't realise that every single one of my friends' children is already on FB....I feel a bit shocked to be honest.
I was considering let him have an account on his birthday. But with warnings and a Big Talk.
I wish to use our family friend as an example, who lost his job this week after whinging about his work, how he was under appreciated and how crap the management were on FB. they were looking for 'cuts' and our friend unwittingly, in a moment of ire, presented himself on a plate, as it were.

msn at 12 for dd (secondary school) then bebo at about 13, now facebook at 15.

ds - 13 just getting into msn

ds - 9 no interest.

And to echo Stewie, my two are quite mature. I have sat them down and explained the very serious implications of posting something 'funny', how it will linger on the net even if they delete it. How some of these things get back to teachers (which happened at my son's school), and can lead to suspensions.

My two (11 and 12) use it. BUT--only if I have passwords. I check their accounts each night after they've gone to bed. If I don't like what I'm reading I have been known to delete 'friends'. If I see comments I think might upset my rather sensitive son, I just delete them.

There's no way I'd let them use FB without me being able to do this. There's too much scope for bullying.

Would I prefer them NOT to be on FB? You bet.

Msn was allowed when dd was quite young - i think she must have been about 10 - you can copy the messages and read them

i also used to make her spell things properly if she wanted to use it - i didn't want her to get into nasty text speak habits ( pre-teens when there was a remnant of parenting idealism left!)

facebook i wouldn't allow until 12 or 13, i am a 'friend' on my kids fb so i know what they are saying - who to - what groups they have joined etc.

i think this is fine as long as the child is aware that you will be checking - you have control of passwords etc and thats the deal

sure you can go on it - but i willbe checking on you - take it or leave it kid.

DS1 is 11, and many of his friends ahve unlimited access to the internet and social network sites. One of his friends even downloaded some very graphic porn images from the internet to his phone - his parents knew nothing about it until I overheard him showing my neighbours 6 year old son the images, and told them.
My 2 don't have access to Facebook, Myspace etc, because we feel theyare too yong, even the 11 year old, to be able to monitor it himself (ie what people post to him etc) and we certainly have parental controls set up on the computer.
Some might say I'm wrong to think that, but IMO, 15/16 is old enough to be using sites like that

14 is, I think, hte age restriction on FB and I think thats right.

My oldest is 10 (DD) and despite asking, she is NOT on any of those sites. She has classmates on facebook but I believe it's far too young. Apart from encouraging even MORE screen time, even if you know their passwords etc and can regularly check, I still feel its a bit too "open" for my DD to be on. You just don't know who is lurking - it's very easy to pretend to be someone you're not on Facebook etc. All you need is a photo and a name.

She has a list of bookmarked websites that she's allowed on and that's IT. PC in family room so no way she can go on other sites without me seeing. Not that I often get off MN let her anyway.