Mark

At what age would you consider it appropriate to allow your kids to have a Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace account? Would you monitor it at a certain age and then stop monitoring it once they are a little older? This is something we unfortunately must consider as our kids get older. For us we probably will not allow them to have any social networking account until they are at least 15 and then monitor it until 16 or 17. I know some people tell their kids that they will only monitor the accounts if they are given a reason to but I cannot see myself doing that. I personally do not like MySpace at all and Twitter seems harmless for now. Facebook is more popular in my opinion but if the right settings are not in place, kids could give out personal information to complete strangers. That is a big concern and of course the worry that someone with bad intentions will try to communicate with them.

What are your thoughts on this? Is there an age when you would allow your kids to have these types of accounts?

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Kim

I'd allow it whenever all her friends start using it, but I would monitor it very closely and talk with her about safety, rules, yadda yadda. Probably would try to discourage anything other than FB though as that is the only one I use, it would be easier for me to monitor it.

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jenilouise

At least 15 at the youngest and probably only a Face Book.

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Kaytee

Facebook only as well. I have had a myspace account and well... its hook up central. Facebook is easier to moniter. Sure private messages can be sent but not as often.

Not sure on age here. I think it would depend on the child but for argument sake I will say around 14-15.

Monitored very closely. especially pictures and the overall feel for the page

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Mark

My wife was using Facebook yesterday when this popup appeared saying she had a virus. Then it started scanning and reporting that her computer was about to crash. Naturally she did not have a virus as this is typical of many spyware programs out there. The name of the program was 'Personal Antivirus' and I was able to clean it up. All she was doing was clicking on a link to add someone as her relative. So be careful on sites like this and always make sure your antivirus and anti-spyware software is up-to-date.

In regards to social network sites in general, what is everyone's impression of Twitter? It seems harmless as you just post status messages although some people can link to photos. To me it is no worse than Facebook though.

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Kim

I don't use it...I think it's kinda dumb.

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Kaytee

ditto Kim, its liek generic facebook in my opinion

and yes I have had one of those type viruses too. I was msart enough to know it was though and told dh

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Mark

She alerted me right away to the spyware and I watched it briefly as it was trying to scan her computer. Thankfully I had a portable flash drive handy with a program on it called Malwarebytes. Funny name but that program is awesome for cleaning those problems out.

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PennQuaker

I don't like any of them, personally. However, I'm not going to monitor what they do on their computers. I'm going to treat them the same way my parents treated me. They gave me rules as to what I could and couldn't do and I never broke them, and I will trust Kate and Gray to do the same.

Ocean

My 7-week-old son already has a facebook account, lol.

I figure when he asks for access to it, we'll let him have it. There are only family members on there right now, and he can talk to them all he wants. I'll probably monitor who he adds and what groups he joins and whatnot until he's around 12/13, though.

He can have twitter, too, if he wants. Again, though, I'd monitor who he adds and make sure he had it set up so that only people on his friends list could see his tweets.

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