More and more children are joining online communities where they can connect to their friends, share photos, write blogs, and more. One of the most popular of those sites is facebook.
Who has facebook accounts?
In order to have a facebook account you must have a valid college email address, or for high schoolers be invited to join by another child at your school. Facebook recently started allowing other people to join who have valid work e-mail addresses, and whose employers have been verified through facebook. Due to their strict sign up guidelines every person on facebook is traceable and identifiable through their work or school.
So how is this different?
Sites like myspace and friendster allow you to sign up with any email address or any name. My dog for instance has a myspace account. Allowing anyone on the site and allowing that person to create any name they want opens the sites up for internet predators. Facebook makes it extremely difficult for predators to event get accounts.
Who can see my child’s profile?
The way facebook works is your child can look for friends by searching for their name, or by looking through their network. Your child’s network will ONLY be their school. If your child wants to view another child’s profile they will have to request them as a friend, and be approved before their profile will be viewable. People on the site who are not your approved friends will show up as a thumbnail photo, a name, and a school.
What can they do on facebook?
Kids can post photo albums for their friends to view on their profile, send emails, and join groups of people with common interests.
Is it safe?
How safe facebook is will depend on your child. While predators may not be able to view your child’s profile they will be able to see their full name, a picture of them, and where they go to school which can be pretty scary. People who are not friends with your child can still send them messages.
In my opinion facebook is the safest of all the internet communities. While all of them claim to be a networking site facebook is the most like one in my opinion. I have photos and a profile up on myspace, friendster, and facebook and have yet to receive one message or friend request on facebook from someone I did not know. Myspace on the other hand I receive several inappropriate messages a day, as well as links to nudity.
If you plan on letting your child use a networking site I would suggest facebook.