I was watching a news report a few weeks ago about teens, even pre-teens and Facebook. The reporter interviewed several children from the ages of 11 to 15 about their internet and Facebook usage and while I wasn’t too surprised by the results they were still a little shocking.
Children today seem to be growing up way too fast and exposed to “real life” so much sooner than before and internet and television has a lot to do with. Sure you can limit the amount of television and internet access you allow your children, but after watching this interview it’s obvious the kids are easily getting around their limitations. Some even go so far as setting up a secret Facebook account that mom and dad don’t even know about.
This week on LifetimeMoms.com you can learn how to monitor kids without being helicopter mom read Is Your Child on Facebook.
I have a teen on facebook, who has had an account since she was 13, and you wouldn’t believe the things that have been said and done to her online. I have even had to report someone for stalking, and have her completely delete and redo her account. She recently told me a mutual male acquaintance had made inappropriate comments to her multiple times, as well. I agree that communication is key. Your kids need to feel comfortable talking to you about online activity…positive and negative. We have made it a rule that our kids must be 13 to have any sort of social networking account. My husband and I feel that is the best age for kids to be able to deal with negative behaviors. It is hard, because 95% of my 10 year old’s friends are on facebook, and she feels left out.
But safety needs to come first.
Interesting post! It is hard… I grew up when the internet had just gotten big (we had an old computer with DOS when I was a kid and when we got Windows 98, all hell broke loose!). Facebook didn’t exist when I was a teen, but AOL did as well as internet chatrooms. My parents did not understand much about the internet so I had free reign over a lot of the activities I did. I had some positive experiences: I learned how to web design on my own, participated in online communities and forums related to my hobbies, used it for school… But while I did all of that I realize looking back that I had been exposed to a lot of things that I couldn’t even recognize as harmful at the time. Pornographic pop-up ads, and more importantly, older men who tried to be my “friend.” I was mature for my age, but never really realized what was going on and I never communicated to anyone. Looking back, I see that I could have been in an extremely dangerous situation but at the time I didn’t recognize that. So I know when I have kids, I will be much more keen to monitor their internet usage, especially since I understand all of the evils that lurk online!