Facebook (I know!) Profiles for Children.

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

Thought I'd try and get some opinions on this. Was on Facebook and noticed my colleague had been tagged in photos on a family day out. The photo's were on a Facebook profile that belongs to her niece, who is seven. Yes, seven. A quick click on the girl's profile and I can see her pictures, comments from her parents and grandparents and can see where she has been 'checked in' to places.

AIBU to feel totally weird about this? It doesn't personally affect me, I know, but I have honestly never come across children having Facebook profiles. Profiles that must have been set up by the parents, or at least with their knowledge. I know it's massively unlikely that anything would ever happen to this wee girl but so much information is just there publicly! Down to her location at certain times.

Maxie I'm not talking about a page being organised and maintained by parents. I am talking about one being maintained by a young child.

Well, there's nothing in your op to suggest that the little girl even knows what facebook is. Parents set up fb accounts for their children all the time, it's very common amongst my friends and family. Problems may appear once the kids start using it actively themselves, and yes, 7 is too young for this, but just the fact that a child has a fb profile means nothing whatsoever. A friend of mine has a fb profile for his dog (who's got more fb friends than my friend), I wouldn't assume the dog has got anything to do with it.

Ok so personal security may or may not be an issue depending on how clued up the child is and how good the parents are at monitoring the FB account.
For me the issue with kids on FB is more complex. Some kids just cannot cope with social media and pressure involved with having an online identity. FB is fun and a great way to communicate. However for a young person it can magnify social pressures, body issues, friendships and distort their view of real life versus FB life. There are several reports of the increase in mental health issues and anxiety among young people much of which has been attributed to social media. IMO 7 is far too young to be exposed to this.

I'm not at all hung up on the 13 age limit, US laws on data collection don't have any bearing on my parenting decisions and I don't have a problem with younger children having accounts but recently my own newsfeed has seen a considerable increase in spam posts of videos that I do consider inappropriate for younger children.

However careful your child may be they can't control whether their friends click on anything that spams other people. I can't believe how many sensible adults click on them so we can't blame children for doing it too.

AFAIK there's no way to stop this

I have reported quite a few accounts for age. Definitely been set up by young person. Their main mistake was trying to 'friend' me, their teacher and not because I am a buddy with all my students teacher!

Most try it in year 7.