Facebook

Your kids are going to tell you that "ALL" of their friends are on Facebook and they want to create an account, so they can keep in touch with their friends. Do your homework!

Check it out yourself. Create an account for yourself and pay close attention to the default settings. Read the privacy policy and go to the Help page and read the FAQs. After you create an account log out and ask a friend who has an account on Facebook to login and show you what information shows up about you before you are "friends" in Facebook. These setting are changing constantly in Facebook, so you might be surprised that more information is shared with "everyone" by default. Now that you see the default setting change them to share with "friends only". This may also be a good time to search Facebook to see if you child hasn't already created an account. If you don't find them in Facebook, Google them just to be sure.

You should have discovered by now that Faceook is for users 13 years old and older. If your child is a teen (not a tween) and you feel they are mature enough to be a responsible user of Facebook, help him or her setup an account. Set their privacy settings and then be sure they "friend" you.

Here are some helpful links to get you started!

Facebook
Using Facebook
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