to think it's ridiculous that children have Facebook accounts

[WhatNotHot]

Whats the point of having an age limit?
I noticed on my DB profile that a child he has connections with, had been asked the question 'would you have sex with ....? The child is 8 ffs

And before anyone comes on spouting about how their 5 yo DD needs a FB account because of them having family that don't live in the same room, then don't bother, people managed to keep in touch before social networking sites were introduced Surely there are sits more appropriate for children, like this one

My SIL who is 8 has an account. My DH was her friend although I refused. My DH has since removed her as she was taking photos of our DD (6 months) and printing them out to show all her friends, her neighbours, random passers by etc. I post pics of my DD on there with strict privacy settings, not so my overexcited SIL can claim them to show off to random people who I dont know.

She also kept ringing my DH up in the evenings asking him to go on FB and play with her. She has no concept of carefulness and I have warned her not to befriend anyone she doesnt know in real life. She worryingly responded by saying "loads of people I dont know have befriended me" but fortunately she says she ignores them and doesnt befriend them. Her mother has no internet knowledge whatsoever and cannot be relied on to police her site.

the whole internet issue & kids is one that really bothers me - how can parents/adults police something when they know less then the kids?

I am not happy with children having access to any social networking sites, even those supposedly for children.

Children & Parents need to be made more aware of some of the dangers lurking out there in internet land!

I'm just glad that DD and her friends prefer Club Penguin (which as far as I can tell is innocuous) - hasn't even mentioned FB. Just as well as I know nowt about it.

my friends baby has a FB account, has done since a month old - she did it so her friends could see pictures of him as he grew - its quite nice. Although she did add him as a neighbour on farmville - exploitation if you ask me!

YANBU

There is no need.

Plenty of games online for children, farmville is a rubbish excuse!!

most adults moderate their conversation topics and language around under 13s (even over 13s!) whereas they dont' on facebook with their adult friends.

i would certainly not accept a friend request from anybody under 13 and would think seriously about the under 16s... and i don't even swear really or have drunken party photos...

and for those who say their children or young teenagers keep in touch with relatives at university - i'd be even more worried.. as the 'friends of friends' they will be exposed to could be very innapropriate (and to be honest, they have the right to be as it's an adult space).

Hi everyone

There is definitely a strong divide on this thread (pro-facebook for kids Vs anti-facebook for kids)

I don't have any answers but here are some links to internet safety websites for parents and children with animations, quizzes, games etc

www.thinkuknow.org/

www.childnet-int.org/kia/

www.chatdanger.com/

www.kidsmart.org.uk/

or you can do your own search for "e-safety"

All children are taught "e-safety" at school but maybe not early enough by the sounds of things.

Also I think its important for us, as parents to be as knowledgable as we can about the subject in order to make informed choices

hope people find these useful
x

DS10yo got to play Modern Warfare 2 at his cousin's house on Christmas day (cousin=12yo, has 2 much younger siblings) and I'm amazed at people being so complacent about their young DC playing that or GTA4; it's really horrible. Maybe I can't prevent every opportunity, but I'm not going to encourage them, either.

DC use simple email to keep in touch with friends and relatives who live far away. It works amazingly well. We also have a family website for pix as they grow (can be done in dozens of ways not Facebook, photo album sites, whatever).

They play games on miniclip and other sites. Why is farmville so essential?

I really don't get the whole 'Facebook' phenomena, though.

YANBU at all there is an age limit for a reason and for those who say their dcs like the games, cant they play them on your FB then!

there has to be an age limit for these things as some parents dont police what their children do, fb have put an age limit on having an account and that should apply for ALL areas of it. the quizes fv etc they are all made with the age limit in mind. some parents will let their children do it and thats life but i think you can do it sensibly like siiting with them when they are chatting under your name and ensure the people they are talking to ie gp cousins etc know that it is a child they are talking to. no games no status updates no adding friends no posts and certainly not their own account!!!!! why do your children even know about the games? they shouldnt be on there to find out!!!!

YABU - FB is ridiculous fullstop

YANBU, hate the thought of my niece reading my updates and wall comments and it's made me have to limit what I say.

Although it was never meant for adults anyway, soperhapswe were unreasonable for hijacking the senior school kids' networking site!

I went to an internet safety talk at dd1's school (primary) which was quite worrying. It was for the whole school but only about 5 parents turned up which says something about complacency in itself.

The main issues seemed to be that younger children in general don't realise that if they put something on Facebook or similar and don't have the right privacy settings, then the whole internet world literally can access it! It's like leaving your front door open and letting anyone in. They also often don't understand the concept that people you talk to on the internet may not be what they seem. They also pointed out the 13+ starting age for FB.

The other main recommendation was to keep the computer in the living room which tends to deter nutters if they see (via a webcam) that there are other people moving around in the background.

Cyber bullying is on the rise apparently particularly at secondary level, made incredibly easy by FB. Quite a few of the children in dd1's class have FB accounts with minimal privacy settings. One had over 150 friends and quite a provocative profile pic . It's a very different situation to the one you describe nanga which I agree is pretty harmless (at the moment).

IMHO it's not appropriate for children to have a facebook account online, children aren't mature enough to spot risks and manage them.

i have a lot of pals on face book and there kids have it at ten years old

Haven't read all the posts, so this might have already been said. I can't believe the age limit is over 13's, I would expect over 16's to be more acceptable. There are plenty of privacy functions on facebook, so who's to say that a child/teen hasn't adjusted these so the parent/ relatives can only see what the child want them to see. Most parents I know don't have a clue about computers, let alone networking sites. It's such a worry and I have all this to come, mine are little and we're along way off from this problem.

What Ronshar said. It's totally unnecessary imo.
The rule is 13, and is there for a reason. Unless you are sitting at the computer the whole time your dc are on it, how can you claim to be confident in their safety?
Agree with whoever said that primary age dcs should be out on bikes/in garden/playing with Lego etc.
Lots of adults I know use FB far too much, very easy for a child to become a bit too consumed with it.

I've had friend requests from children as young as 7. I know their parents and find it odd that they allow their DCs free access to FB. I certainly won't be allowing DS1 (9) to have an account until he's 14.

I ignore their requests and have my own policy where I won't accept a friend request from anybody 14 or less.

This is because I see FB as an adult area.

YADNBU

My DD used to use mine to draw graffiti, but DH & I started receiving really, really grotesque pictures & videos. I got rid of funwall, and won't let DC on it now.

A friend's 10yo has a photo posted of her at pole dancing classes!

Facebook seems to be something that makes many adults act like children, and many children act like adults. When used with discretion and intelligence, it's probably fine for older adolescents and adults.

10years old Pole dancing. WTF.

Why dont they just sell their child to the Albanians?

YANBU.

Chidlren do not need to play FarmVille.

Infact, I actually find childnren on FB wierd, and want ot tell them to go to bed.

of course they don't NEED farmville, but its better than shoot batter and kill everything that they have on playstation. My DD loves helping on my farm, we had a fish tank too but they kept dying so we just stick to our farm now