Too Young for Facebook?
What age is too young for a Facebook profile? Facebook’s age limit is 13 so if your child is under 13, they are legally too young. There are people that lie when creating a FB profile and Facebook has mechanisms in place to detect liars. There are 20,000 children’s accounts deleted daily. A suggestion might be to have a family FB profile that all in the family can access. If your child already has a FB profile and is under 13, take steps to insure their safety online. Chair of the cyber-safety committee Dana Wortley said, “We know there are potential risks that young people face including cyber-bullying, identity theft and privacy issues, illegal content and contact from online predators.”
1. Get your child’s user name and password & check on them often. If they are not happy about this, don’t let them have an account.
2. Don’t let your child be friends with anyone outside of their age range. Older people may post things a child should not see.
3. Limit the number of friends they can have. For example, my 12 year old niece is only allowed 20 friends and all friends must be approved by Mom and Dad.
4. If you’ve decided your child is too young, you can block the site on your computer with an administrative password. Here’s how to set the parental controls on a Macand on Windows 7.
