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What is Facebook?
Facebook is one of today's most popular social networking sites. Creating a Facebook account allows you to create a personal page similar to a blog. Once you have set up this "profile" page, you can continue to add pictures, videos, and typed messages onto your page for others to see.
You can choose who can and cannot view your profile. People who have access to your information are known as "friends." To become someone's Facebook friend, you must send a friend request to that person and wait for them to accept the request (or the other way around—someone may request that you add them as a friend and will only be granted access to your page when you confirm him or her as a friend).
Concerns for Parents
- Facebook has adjustable privacy settings. However, your child can choose to make his or her information visible to anyone on the web. Kids and teens don't always have sound judgment when deciding what is and isn't safe to post online, so having a wide-open Facebook page is dangerous. Having too much personal info online puts one at risk for becoming a victim of identity theft, receiving lots of spam, being cyberbullied, being cyberstalked, or becoming a target for online predators.
- Even if your child uses Facebook appropriately, other Facebook users may post offensive content—and this means your child can view anything a Facebook "friend" chooses to publish.
- Facebook is a fun and engaging site. Many kids, teens, and even adults admit to spending irresponsible amounts of time on the site. While this may or may not be a full-blown addiction, a person who spends too much time on Facebook may quickly find the demands of real life tough to keep up with.
How Can I Keep My Child Safe?
- Be sure you can access your child's account. Some parents may want to create an account with their child. This means you will have the account password and can access anything your child does on Facebook. However, simply creating your own Facebook account and insisting that your child accepts you as a friend will allow you to view most of your child's Facebook activity. Decide which option is best for you.
- Know what your child's privacy settings are. Facebook can be quite safe for kids and teens so long as they keep their profile pages private enough that only friends they know and trust in real life can see their info.
- Be sure your child knows what is and is not appropriate to post online. What goes online tends to stay online--even on a relatively private profile page, it's still unsafe to post a phone number, address, or any sort of financial information on the Internet. Lastly, some things simply don't need to be shared over the web. Having access to your child's page will help ensure that they are not making private family or personal matters inappropriately public.
- Make sure your kids block anyone who posts offensive content or contacts them inappropriately. Facebook allows users to block anyone who does or says anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. Be sure your child knows how to do this.
Where Can I Learn More?
Provided by Facebook, this page addresses many of the privacy concerns parents may harbor about their children's Facebook use.
Read this list of general safety outlines for parents of kids on Facebook. You can also visit Facebook's help page to search for answers to other questions and concerns.
If you are interested in setting up a Facebook account, you can learn how to do so here. The longer Internet Safety Wiki article about Facebook also gives extensive information about Facebook accounts and what they allow one to do online.
Don't become a victim of "data harvesting" by posting too much sensitive info on your public profile page!
BBC: Girls 'becoming Facebook addicts'
