to think that only a total idiot would let a 5 year old have a Facebook page?

[catinboots]

That's it really.

And yep, I'm judgin.

The 5 year old in question has over 100 friends, including her young aunt and some of her aunt's friends (teenagers) who have very inappropriate status updates and pictures.

And I ain't easily shocked.

I think it's a brilliant idea, to tag the child in statuses, i.e. "Kinkyfuckery is going to lose her head if @Thing1fuckery doesn't get her homework done now and @Thing2fuckery doesn't get her finger out of her fucking nose"

i also think it is silly and in appropriate - my stupid, selfish ex sister in law, who has her younger nieces and nephews as her friends, recently posted a photograph of an erect cock with the by line - ' look what I have just seen' - she did not care at all who saw this

Squeaky Each of my sister's THREE cats has a fb page for that exact reason and my mum's dog. I'm friends with all of them!

Does the 5 year old even understand the concept of Facebook and able to log in and read the status updates? My dd has seen me use fb since birth, and at 5 years old still doesn't have a clue about what it is or how to use it. Are you sure it's not the mother/father using the account on her behalf?

Maybe it is just a dummy page used by the child's parents to update family and friends with photos. Still daft though, so YANBU.

Well this is the problem with facebook - clearly the parents have sent out the friend requests to people who shouldn't have access to their 5 year old and now that child will see an incredible amount of inappropriate stuff. A 5 year old should be limited to family members only who will remember that the 5 year old can see their status updates. I did make the mistake of accepting my dd2 friends' friend requests because I didn't want to appear rude and then when I was posting some news that I really just wanted MY friends to see I realised what a cock up I'd made - thankfully I have now deleted all children except my own and I only have them so I can keep an eye on their pages and have to remember to be careful what I post.

My 4 yr old has a page but only so my family overseas can see pictures. I am the only one who looks after it and it can only be seen by family. I would never dream of letting him use it. There was a friend request from some weirdo so I reported them immediately and hiked up the security and it's never happened again.

of course what I mean is - if parents choose to lie to facebook and make a page for their 5 year old which I can't believe any parent would do - !! The minimum age is 13 but most kids 8 and over know about facebook and often (with the help of friends or older siblings) will open an account without their parents' knowledge.

Used like Shutitweirdo says seems like a nice way to keep family updated.

Anything else below secondary age is just inappropriate. I know most of year 3 - 6 have facebook. I get then asking me to add them and I always say no.

I say 'fuck' a lot in my status plus it would be a sackable thing.

An acquaintance set up a page for her newborn. Bloody pointless from what I can see.

This is where I think Mn is a parrallel universe. I know lots of kids who have FB accounts from ages 9 and up then someone brings up a thread on it and most of the folk who post are very against it, doesn't seem to reflect real life. Like threads about young kids playing COD, so many saying no way when I know many of the boys in my 10 yr olds class do play these games.

I don't get why a child would need their own page though. Surely, being your child, you can let family see pictures on your page?

Mind boggles.

Yep, there's just no need for it. If you want to share pics, do it through your own account. Accepting a child's fb friendship is exactly the same as inviting them to a huge adult party with every adult you are friends with and their friends and then leaving them alone in the middle of it. Of course they will see inappropriate things!

The 5 yo I knew - apparently there was also a big fight on his page when the grandparents fell out. Nice. Not Jeremy Kyle-y at all.

Begonia

But it is real life. I am the worst mummy in the world so I am told because I wont let DD (11) have FB, wont let them watch age inappropriate DVDs (and I take my own judgement on that, not the BFC) and the same with video games.

Just because you know a lot of parents who either dont care or are too lazy to supervise their kids doesnt mean that we are all like that. Doesnt make it right either. As the saying goes "If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you follow them?"

ummmm on the fence.

YANBU if 5 yr old is using it to keep in contact with all he other 5 yr old friends

YABU if say parents set up page because they live abroad and want to keep friends and family back home up to date with what's going on. Example being, like today was my first day at school, how cute is my uniform and tagged gran in the picture.

Yanbu. How did the world ever do without Facebook?

It's ridiculous and horribly precious.

I made the mistake, in an unguarded moment, of accepting a friend request from an 8 year old - my only excuse being that I was exceptionally busy and didn't think first. What a nightmare! Pages of spammy links, games requests, inappropriate content and constant messages of the RU OK? variety. This in ONE DAY! I contacted the child's mother to warn her what was going on and was told I was being very unreasonable to stop him having fun.

Judgemental pants so high that I wore them as a balaclava.

"Yanbu. How did the world ever do without Facebook?"

There was My Space instead.

bogeyface -but where are all the parents who do allow these things, there are many of them in real life - just not on this thread so it's not representative. and these parents do care and aren't lazy.

i might get slated for this but i had one for mine 7 and 4 .
it was done in an attempt to keep thier sperm donner in their lifes, so he could see photos etc.

i didnt want him on my facebook so it made sence to make up a new one just for photos, for him and his family who live in the states.

my two children dont have a clue that it exsists and i didnt do statues just posted pictures.

i find some of the post a bit odd but hey each to their own.

I care, I'm not lazy. DD (9) has a FB page.

I control it, she is only allowed on it when I am sat with her when she prizes my cold bony hands from MN and she only has family on. She did start to ask for school friends and their older siblings to be added - I let it initially but then after checking up on these people realised their parents were not necessarily as strict as I am in regards to controlling FB access.

She is also under strict instructions to not add anybody, regardless of whether she knows them, without my permission. Family friends are off the menu as I do not think it is fair for them to have to watch what they say/post if they have her as a friend. I have told them not to accept requests, not that she would add them.

Her privacy settings are as high as possible, I check her activity (there is a section that records all activity for under 16's) after each session.

She goes on about once a week for 20 minutes and then gets bored and goes onto Moshi Monsters and has much more fun.

I would rather FB wasn't a big secret that was kept from her, I hope she realises that it is actually very boring and it's only use is to keep bored mothers entertained when MN is offline

I bloody hate Facebook and all it stands for. I dread the day my kids ask me for one :/
I also agree op and my pants are half mast they're pulled so high!

meant to explain - half our family (my aunts/uncles and younger cousins) live far away, we only see them twice a year and this is our way of keeping in touch with them.

my nephew has a fb page and has over 300 cyber friends,,,,mainly from one of those role play games . He's 8. ANd she thinks Im a bad parent!