To think this is wrong?

[pucca]

I am seeing more and more of junior school age children on facebook (friends children), i don't agree with it to be honest, what do you all think?

A parent is far more qualified to decide if their child should be allowed access to fb but I reckon by law they have to have an age limit because unfortunately, as SG said, not all parents supervise their childs internet use.

DD is 9 and has no interest in social networking but another child of the same age may be very 'clued up' to it's uses and with over-the-shoulder supervision I don't see a problem letting them develop their computer skills and internet knowledge.

Some of the groups are vile, make me sick, i reported a number of them.

I have just looked on FB, and it does state 13 or older and it is determined by the year of birth put in when registering, in other words lying.

My Ds has a page and I go on it to see what hes been up to on it.
He has to ask me before adding friends/family and is not alowed to join any groups.
He only uses the pc in the living room and I keep tabs on what hes doing.
Ds is 8 and I see no problem with it, but only because I keep such a close eye on it.

I'm like MayorNaze - never tried FB myself, 11yr old DD perfectly happy with ClubPenguin.

But - I know some of her classmates are allowed on under the sort of terms NorthernSky describes. I suspect that when they disperse to secondary schools, those on FB will retain contact, those without won't.

Not sure how I feel about this - they are lovely girls I'd like DD to stay in touch with. I sort of feel I should join FB myself so I can see for myself what its like so I'm prepared when and if she asks about it.

I came across this last week when I found out a younger (age 9) member of the family was "always" on facebook!

It concerns me as my dd1 (aged 6) is very computer savvy already, and her 5 yr old sister is learning quickly from her! I said to DH last week that I will resist them getting FB for as long as possible, and when I do give in (after they are 13!) they will be told that they will have NO privacy from me on FB. They can have a private diary, private chats with their friends in RL, but I will be overseeing everything that goes on on their FB account, so to keep anything they don't want me to know about off it!

thankfully my DSDs aren't bothered about it (they're 12 in a few weeks). they went through a phase of going on MSN messenger a lot (cue lots of phone calls asking if I'd go in it too! lol) but got bored with it. they've never been supervised online so I'm glad they aren't into it. they just play games.

their big bro (18) lives on FB and we're FB friends, but I don't really contact him on it as I don't want to become a spy for my technophobe DH!

I think FB is an incredibly unhealthy environment, even for young people whose age just qualifies them for membership.

I say this despite being a very active user of FB because I am currently watching a rather worrying situation play out between the 14 year old daughter of people I know and her school friends. There appears to be some sort of bullying going on and fortunately other, closer members of her family are keeping an eye too. But I was equally bothered to discover that another friend's nine year old had been doing those ridiculous FB quizzes and posting the wildly inappropriate results to his profile. Fortunately, my friend realised this and removed him from FB, pronto. But FB won't protect anyone so the only safeguard is to ban FB altogether until (imvho)at least 16.

what are these quizzes? I haven't seen any.

Mine use it, it's fine. V valuable way to learn not to automatically trust appearances and to deal with hairy handed truckers. And if there are vile groups, a good opportunity to talk about them and why they are vile.

I'm going to have a horrible shock one day, aren't I?

I think it depends on the use. Saying that I disagree with it still, but if they're bound to do it behind your back (as we all know that some kids would) then I'd say let them have an account, supervise it properly and make it clear that if their friends start adding things on there that you don't like they will be deleted.

It is better for kids to know and understand the dangers and do it responsibly than having them go behind your back doing it and putting way too much info up on there imo.

Though I also think parents should understand it before letting DCs on it btw. My cousin met an online 'uncle' somehow and he was grooming her and her friend via MSN. Not sure how he originally got in touch, my aunt (well, great aunt, it's her granddaughter who lives with her) knows nothing about computers and it was only because my Mum went round to do something on the PC that they found out, computer has since been turned off 99% of the time until great aunt learns more about it!

There is just too much bad stuff for me to even think of letting my kids use it.

There is the bullying issue, there is the dodgy quizzes/groups/pictures. Then there is the risk of someone contacting your child whose intentions are not good.

There was that report on a middle-aged bloke who pretended to be 17, he lured a 17yr old girl to meet him then he murdered her.

It just isn't worth the risk in my eyes, and although some parents would supervise, i don't believe for one min that all under 13's on there are supervised all the time.

My DS1 is 12.5 and doesn't have a FB account, he really isn't interested, but my 9 year old DD1 asked for an account as 'all her friends have one' I said 'No' quoting that FB say you have to be 13