Too young for Facebook?

Glenda - posted on 06/28/2011

too young!!!!! go outside and play!!

Catherine - posted on 12/31/2010

I am in total agreement, 9 is too young. My daughter is 11 and she wants one but i told her maybe next year. She is about to do exam and she will be changing school, so i told her maybe then so she can stay in contact with her primary school friends. Thanks for the info too, because i didn't know fb age limit was 13. So thats also something to keep in mind.

Holly - posted on 12/30/2010

My 8 year old daughter uses her grandfather's FB account more than her grandfather does, BUT:
1. it is NOT in her name
2. it has NO PICTURES of her or anyone else
3. she ONLY uses it when I say she can and she ONLY plays games I've approved (Hatchlings and Treasure Isle)
4. her grandfather and I MUST approve anyone she wants to put on the friend's list

With those 4 rules she can play on games with my mom and my sister (both who live far away from us but she's really close to emotionally) and she likes going onto my profile page and leaving cute little mesages (like today's - "I love you Mommy! Thanks for lunch today!" left after lunch during her computer time).

I don't think she's too young and her grandfather does still use his account (to keep in touch with a couple of his old high school buddies and to play a couple of his games). It's kinda like they share the account and we're happy with the set up :) And of course I always monitor her while she's on there to make sure she's following the rules

Linda - posted on 12/29/2010

i am making all of my children wait until the age of 13 as that is the required age to set up an account and i don't like teaching my children to lie.

Kids - posted on 12/28/2010

FB's terms of service require children to be at least 13, and I say that's too young. I'm a bully expert and FB is one of the most common ways young people bully each other. A 9 year old would not even begin to know how to deal with that. And then there are the predators. Please protect your child, give him something else to play with.

Becky - posted on 12/28/2010

To young I have some young people on my but they are family. If you deside to make sure you can get on it and see who hes friends are.

Amy - posted on 12/27/2010

Facebook says 13. I think 9 is too young, but that is honestly for you to decide. After a recent experience with my 7 year old niece and her facebook page, I won't allow my son to have one until at least the facebook age AND until I know that he knows what is ok and not on the internet. Even if your son has a private profile, people can still message him, they can't post on his wall but they can message. My niece had an incident where a man was posting obscene messages to her. Luckily, my sister was monitoring her page and was able to put a stop to it. My sister is a stay at home mom. I am not, I can't be on his facebook page all the time ensuring his safety. As his mother, you have to decide if he will be able to respect the danger the internet presents.

Amanda - posted on 12/26/2010

TOO young!! I don't think I'll let my kids ever have a facebook...there is nothing but problems with it...what happened to going outside to play with your friends? Or having to ride your bike to their house to see if they can play? Or calling someone to talk rather than emailing...I think we are allowing our children to become rather lazy and FB only enables this....but that is just my opinion!! :)

Deanna - posted on 12/26/2010

Our 4 girls have facebooks. The 3 youngest share one, ages 3,4, and 7. The 14 yr old has her own. We let them on it to play games and help keep up with friends. the computer is in the schoolroom and I monitor ALL computer activities. the only people allowed on their friends list is family and parent approved friends. I monitor their settings and everything. I have them on one of my spare e-mail accounts so even if they change the passwords I can change it back and even shut it down totally which I have done once before on my teen. there are rules and guidelines for them and they can't even get the computer on without a password so there is no fear of them trying something while we are out or such. hope this helps some.

Jonathon - posted on 12/26/2010

Since im not a mom and by no means an expert in parenting i can safley say that im just voicing my opinions here, i agree that encouraging a child to lie is wrong, but as i have 6 qualifications in computers i can also tell you from fact that there are safe ways to moniter your children on the internet. If a child can recognise the dangors of the internet, explain why they are dangorus, explain in detail the implications of the dangors of the internet and list precaotiions they can take to protect themselfs while using the internet i would say it is safe to let them use facebook, and i seriously doubt that any 9 year old would be able to do all of that. But regardless of weather they are able to do it or not parental control software with advanced filtering and advanced realtime monitering should be installed to protect children when they are using the internet or any computer for that matter.

Sylvia - posted on 12/26/2010

Since FB does not allow you to sign up unless you're at least 13, allowing a kid younger than that to sign up for an account would involve either telling them it's OK to lie about their age or doing the lying for them. That's not behaviour I really want to encourage ... so, no, I would not let a 9-year-old have a Facebook account.

Jonathon - posted on 12/25/2010

that is what Facebook rules say, i wouldent encourge any child to engage in lying either, but you can always either set an account up for him or explain to him the diffrence between lying, telling a white lye and bending the trutth.

Teresa - posted on 12/25/2010

The age limit is 13, so unless you lie for him (not a behavior I want my children thinking is acceptable).... he IS too young.

Jonathon - posted on 12/25/2010

Having 6 computer qualifications, i can awnser this from fact. All be it i am the disabled person here, having autisim, learning difficulties, emotional and psycological difficulties and all. If he can list to you all the dangers of the internet, and explain to you why the items he has listed are dangorus, the implocations of the items on his list and precautions he can take to avoid getting himself in to trouble while surfing the internet and using facebook, then he is probibly old enough and mature enough to have his own face book page. However key items that must be in his list are not to give out personal information, not to talk to strangers, not to visit websites he dosent know, not to visit chat rooms and to ask you if he wants to visit a website or chat room first. If he can identify these then it is probibly safe for him to use facebook. However regardless of weather he maniges to identify these and other dangers of the internet, explain why they are dangorus and provide a list of precautions he can take to protect himself while surfing the internet and using facebook, you should install parental controal software on your computer so you can moniter his activities on the internet in detail and see exactly what messages he is sending / receving, to wich usernames / emails, what websites he is visiting etc... etc...
you should install software that will automaticaly filter out adult content, the last thing your goiing to want is an advertisment for adult websites poping up while your son is on the computer, the sotware you chose should also prevent popups. You should consider your decision very carfully, i would compare the social network community and the internet itself to a war zone. While there is no risk of dying on the internet or a social network website such as facebook, the risk i am refering to when comparing the social networking community to a war zone comes from the difficulty in finding people who are willing to be real friends. Though that just might be me being that i have Aspergers Syndrome and Pathalogical Demand Avoidance Syndrome both of wich are forms of autisim so i find it difficult to make friends and sochilise anyway. I dont have any friends in the physical world, all my friends are in the cyber world but none of them can hang out with me or go to the cinima with me because one they live to far away and tow i dont know them well enough. My rule for meeting someone of the internet is to know them for a minimum of three years before considering it and meet them in a public place and dont go back to there house are ask them to your house the first 5 times you meet them wait till the 6th time you meet them before you do that. I just wish i could remember the link to the official online child safty website there is an entire section on introducing your child to the internet, and an entire section on introducing your child to social networking. But what ever you decide, Parental controal software with advanced realtime monitering is an absaloute must.

Kim - posted on 12/25/2010

My son has a facebook account and he's 10, however, he is only friends with family. It is a great way for my son to keep in contact with our family since we live half way across the world.

Sherri - posted on 12/24/2010

My kids got FB accts at 11 (6th grade) & 12 (7th grade). Yes I do believe 9 is much to young.

Angie - posted on 12/24/2010

Our children don't have FB until they are old enough for us not to have to lie to get one for them. I don't want to teach my children to lie to get what they want.