Girls with FB accounts

[begonyabampot]

AIBU to be surprised to find that some friends and acquaintances allow their young daughters - ages range form 8yrs- 11 yrs to have their own open (no privacy settings) FB accounts. Their profile pics show exactly that they are just little girls. Anyone can access their accounts and see their photos (some were of 10 yr olds dressing up like pop stars and posing - they had taken and downloaded these images themselves),see what they are posting on their wall etc.

they aren't close friends and I don't know it they are always supervising the content and usage or just being naive about Fb and how it works and the dangers out there. AIBU to be surprised or is this more common than I thought. My good friend told me that many of her daughters friends (10yrs) have their own accounts.

those will be some very confused and embarrassed little girls. Really a reason not to let girls have cameras...

I have heard of a head who showed similar photos (heads missing) in an assembly

YANBU I loathe that trend.

My friend G is stepmum to an 8 year old girl who I have never met, probably never will and have no connection to at all. I doubt this girl has ever even heard of me.

The other day this little girl came up as a friend suggestion, so I had a look. In 5 minutes I knew her name, her village, her school, her date of birth, that she likes ponies. I knew who her friends were, what she was doing yesterday and what she looked like in a short skirt.

I had a facebook account for a whole three days and decided it was not something I wanted to be involved in thanks. I certainly wont be letting DD1 (aged 11) have one for a very long time.

I think moshi monsters is a lot more dangerous. You cant see a profile of the person who is sending messages. You just get a note in your room. After i seen the notes to my daughter i set up my own monster using their dads e mail as my 'parent' and easily accessed my daughters room to leave her a note. I have since stopped this and she not allowed on club penguin either for the same reason. She had a hissy fit but has now forgot about it.

I have a facebook but by god my children are not having facebook accounts until they are at least 13. And their profiles will be private.

3 or 4 weeks ago on FiveLive in their web spot on "Up All Night", there was mention of an alternative aimed at the pre-teen age group (7 to 12) which had been suggested by a teacher from South Wales. The teacher won a competition run by a media firm and local paper and as well as cash, she will be getting support from the media firm to develop the idea, called Cyber Buddies

I started a thread in Site Stuff but sadly no-one commented on the pros or cons.

Simple idea for ID checking is that youngsters would be 'identified' by their school. Not sure if anyone had thought about home education, where contact may be as important if not more so, but the thread is still there.

I'm not linked in any way to the site or the teacher, but regularly see comments about FaceBook being used by pre-teens and there are alternatives.

I assume most schools give some tips on staying safe but this Cyber Buddies site would go some way to preventing cranks and perverts from viewing anything written by youngsters.