Child on facebook

[bushymcbush]

I have a facebook 'friend' who is actually a girl I went to school with and haven't seen for 20 years.

Today I noticed her status tagged her daughter and I clicked on the link to see what her dd looks like. [nosy parker emoticon]

Two things immediately became clear to me: 1) her dd is only 11 so shouldn't really be on Facebook. 2) she appears to have no privacy settings at all, as I was able to view her wall, info and photos just as if she was an fb friend of mine.

My immediate thought was that her mum can't realise that her dd's profile is publicly available and I should message her to tell her. Then I thought maybe she does realise, and would think me very interfering and judgemental for messaging her about it, when we don't really know each other at all (we werent close at school).

WWYD?

I'd message and say hey there, are you aware your daughters profile is visible to all? She has no privacy settings on it? Why not? I would.

If you don't really have much to do with her it probably won't matter if she thinks you are judgemental or interfering. Would you be overly bothered if she unfriended you? That's the worst case scenario and, if you don't really know her, you probably wouldn't miss her.

OTOH she may not be aware of her daughter's settings, as her friend she would be able to see everything so it might not occur to her to check that strangers can't. You could be doing her a massive favour and she might be grateful.

I agree with Fabby. My dd is on fb and until agood friend helped out I had only the minimum security for her.
I am not v technical, maybe your old pal not so clever either?

Thanks all - you're absolutely right, of course it's worth the risk. I have sent her a message in what I hope are friendly tones!

My 11 year old nephew is on FB. Not a friend but his wall was accessible. Messaged my sis to advise her to change his settings. She's not very compter savvy where FB is concerned so my niece has now changed his settings & I am now a 'friend'.....

I also agree with Fabby.

i also agree with fabby cos at this time of night i have no opinion :)

WWYD?

Report the dd's account.

Because InTheNightKitchen younger people aren't always as careful about what they post as older ones and may identify themselves/their location inadvertently.

And whilst it's never a good idea to get on the paedo-paranoia train, they do exist, and they do use social networking sites to target children.