...to not want my 10-yr-old godson as a facebook "friend"?

[stroppyshopper]

My 10-yr-old godson has been given unrestriced access to Facebook by his parents, a move I strogly disagree with. What's more, he's "friended" me. I accepted, thinking it might be an OK way to keep an eye on his Facebook use, but it's just turned out to be sort of creepy. Every time I see one of his misspelled posts or see him joining some waste-of-time group or game, I just want to call him up and tell him to get off the computer. What do I do? I certainly can't "un-friend" my godson.

You can't 'un-friend' him, you can 'ignore' his posts though, go to the side of one of them and press "hide". He'll never know. If you want to see what he's up to then just look at his page.

I think theres a way you can hide his posts and status updates, might be the best option

I always turn down friends requests from children as I don't want to have to censor anything I may say on FB. I don't want my friends 12 year old reading anything inappropriate that I may put on there.

I don't understand why a child needs to be on FB in the first place.

YANBU. I would de-friend him and if anything is said, say you don't have children on your facebook as you don't want to censor anything, as lolapoppins said. I wouldn't have a 10 year old for this reason. Plus I can't stand all this joining crappy groups and shocking spelling either. I have defriended and hidden people because of it.

You can report underage FB users and their accounts will be deleted. I did this in similar circumstances to the ones you're in and do not regret it. 10 is too young to have unrestricted access to FB.

Are you ever off the computer?

I have had tons of requests from children, I just do not add them

when they ask me why I tell them I dont agree with them or their parents lying about their age to get them a facebook

Defriend him immediately, as he will be able to see your status updates and those of your friends, if you comment on then.
10yo have no business on FB and I think you need to have a word with his parents and show them why.

My DC (17 and 18) have received friend requests from one of their friend's dads. They find it slightly odd, and are not accepting.

the simplest way is to go into privacy settings and there you can select names of people who you don't want to see posts, pics etc by you! you can still see him but he can't see what you write on your profile.

I have my (as of Friday) ex-charge on mine via her mums page. She's 10 and her parents (quite rightly!) won't let her have her own but she plays games etc on her mums and she saw me on fb one night and decided to add me. Basically, she would have been really upset if I didn't, so I added her and then blocked her from seeing pretty much everything on my page so she can't see my wall, status, any comments I make on other peoples anything, photos... She CAN see my name, and basic details and THAT'S IT!

I wouldn't de-friend him, but would do as above and block him from pretty much everything and then hide his updates if they upset you!

why would a 10yr need to be on fb

i have been asked by many of my friends teenagers to add them and i flatly refuse

fb is for my friends to see what they are doing and vice versia - i dont want a child reading/seeing ehat i do/write etc

what is the point in adding someone then editing your account so that they cant see anything

far better to refuse

and yes i have refused my ex dc who is 10 and has an account

I've just refused both my stepsons. They've gor accounts to play games on and I've had to tell them that I'll only add them as a friend when they get to 16 because I strongly disagree with kids having facebook accounts. Which they knew anyway because I've not allowed them to set one up when they've asked me to do it!

I guess I missed something when I signed on to facebook -- I didn't realize (or forgot) there was an age limit! So my friends have lied for him in order to help him set up an account? Now, that IS shocking!

Thanks for all the advice, I will "hide" him. Weetabix, I don't get your reply