Like many of you out there, Facebook has become a recent obsession of mine. Over the past couple of months, I’ve had fun finding friends I haven’t spoken to in years, and I’ve really enjoyed the new way to keep in quick contact with my everyday friends. But the other day, I was taken off guard when I noticed that a friend of mine was friends with a fifth grader I know. An 11-year-old on Facebook? On top of that, I had complete access to his page without even being “friended” by him. This gave me pause. Who might be stalking the Facebook pages and looking for little guys like him to “friend”? Who might start chatting with him? I shudder to think. Preteens on Facebook. Technically, kids are suppose to be 13 to be on Facebook, but who’s checking? In my mind, as a parent, this subject is a closed book. What do you think?
About Betsy Stein
Betsy Stein has been editor of Maryland Family magazine since 2002. Her main and most fulfilling job, however, is her family — husband, Chris, and children, Maggie, 12; Lilly and Adam, 11; and Jonah, 7. Before kids, Betsy was a reporter for the Howard County Times beginning in 1991. She covered education, planning and zoning, and courts and cops at various points in her career.
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Gah! I agree. Scary.
I recently banned my 12 yr old from posting anything on any social networking sites or any other pages that are publicly available. Most of these sites require that you be at least 13. If you have an account and you are under 13, it means you have lied about your age and this makes you even more vulnerable. Lying is also grounds for discipline, which in my house, means you must wait until the 13th birthday before posting another word anywhere. Restriction does not apply to private emails to family and friends from “real life.”