To think that children should not have facebook?

[CrayolaCocaColaRocknRolla]

Facebook has an age range. its 13+
So why, for the love of God, do children age 5-13 have facebook? And why do parents make facebook profiles for their 1mo DCs? And.. Why do young mother tend to put "mummyofDC" in their facebook name? It's not needed, we don't care, and your profile is NOT private, so your weirdo friend that liked the picture of said DC? shows up on his pervert friends newsfeed. Well done.
Jesus tapdancing christ, keep your kids off facebook until they have a choice.

you could do that just as easily with an account of your own, why the pretense?

Back in the day, you had to prove you were old enough to have FB by providing a working current or alumni email address. Then 16+ were added but again you had to use an email address associated with an educational establishment, and those under 18 couldn't access all content, and were only searchable, findable, visible by friends or FOAFs. There were no fake accounts.

Now it's a completely different environment. I don't really see it as being much different from letting your DC roam around a big city ... where there is complete freedom of speech and lots of big screens showing porn, violent videos, etc.

We will resist social media for DC until they are at least 13, at which point conditional on watertight privacy/security settings/parents knowing password and checking occasionally. I'm a FB beta tester and DH a developer so our understanding is greater than average.

I was given grief by a father when on holiday last year for letting DD (8) go on the waterslides and have lunch with her two holiday friends (8 and 11). He went on and on about how dangerous it was, how anyone could take her, how anyone could watch her and hurt her etc.

However his 10 year old asked me at the end of the week to add her on FB and was surprised that DD didn't have an account. Father actually tried to persuade me to let her have an account.

I checked out his DDs account - she had over 300 'friends' and her page was wide open. Lots n lots of duck face photos too.

Bloody ridiculous.

I'm a young(ish) mom and I don't have a FB page for DD. She can make one for herself when she's older.

I have some older relatives on the other hand that make FB pages for their dogs. They even post for them "Today I went on a walk, I don't like being trained, but my mommy is so patient with me" UGH! (No, I don't add them as friends, their statuses just get shared on said family's main timeline). Stupidity can come in all ages.

There's nothing wrong with a FB for a minor as long as they're being supervised. It's a good chance to teach them about the web, the importance of using discretion when they post, and how any picture they post could be permanent. Teach them in a safe environment while the risks are low and you can still guide them.

Actually, parents should really be involved on their older teen's facebook pages too with all the cyber bully problems.