Moms Talk: When Is It OK for Your Child to Be on Facebook?

After speaking with colleagues and friends, and discovering that most of my sixth-grade students have profiles, I’d say most kids have a Facebook profile.

Did you know that it is against Facebook’s policy for children under 13 to have an account? Here it is, taken straight from their website:

No information from children under age 13. If you are under age 13, please do not attempt to register for Facebook or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under age 13, please contact us through this help page.

Parental participation. We strongly recommend that minors 13 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet and we encourage parents to teach their children about safe Internet use practices.

Needless to say, there are plenty of children who have Facebook accounts that are under 13 even though Facebook feels its website isn’t a forum for children and strong enough about it to have a policy against it.

Parents, do you know if your child has a Facebook account? Do you know what it looks like?

Do you know what pictures, video or information they have posted online and what their privacy status is? Do you know how they interact with others?

We’ve all heard the stories of kids being taken advantage of online or lured in by some predator.

What do you think is the right age for a child to get into social media?