Facebook for parents: Do you 'friend' your kids?

This article was regarding facebook and whether or not mothers in their 50's and up should sign up on facebook to keep in contact with their grown children. The author of this article asked her son that lived in another state and he said he didn't care if that’s what she wanted to do then that’s what she should do.

I find this article pretty interesting because as the article said facebook was once just for college students with an "edu" email address, not anyone could access it. I think they really need to crack down on what age is accessing sites like facebook and myspace. It is kind of ridiculous what age groups are signing up for these sites these days. It is horrible. I also believe that parents should sign up for these kinds of websites. The only reason the children would not want them to be their friend, was if they are doing something wrong. It is even more important for the parents of children ages 15 and below to have an account and access their child's account as well. These are the kind of sites that attract more and more stalkers, rappers, and murders, these days. It is important to keep the young children that don't realize what they are getting there selves into, out of trouble. I wouldn’t have a care in to world if my mother wanted to be my friend on facebook at all, it would be just one more easy way to keep in contact with each other. Would you let your parents be your friends?

http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/02/facebook_for_parents_do_you_fr.html

I agree with you on the statement that facebook and myspace should crack down on ages. The only problem with that is that people may make up fake ages and e-mail addresses to get on the pages. Like you said, they should have to have an edu e-mail address from a college in order to be a member on these sites. Kids now a days will get myspaces when they are ten. They do not know the dangers of the different information they can put out there. People that young are naïve to predators. If people older want to get a myspace or facebook to spy on their kids then their kids probably should not have one to begin with. It is fine if you want to be friends and keep in touch but not just for the fact of spying.

Personally I have mixed feelings about facebook and myspace. In one aspect I believe that it’s kind of nice when parents are on facebook so that they can keep up with what their child is doing or especially to aces photos if their child lives in a different state. On the other hand I don’t like it when parents add all the applications like “who’s hot” and sending “shots” to people. I think it’s weird. I definitely don’t agree with young children having facebook. It’s when all the really young children starting getting myspace’s that made me turn to facebook. I actually had little girls who I coached wanting to add me. They were 8 and 9 years old. I think it is really unsafe for those young kids to have internet site accounts like facebook and myspace.

Well, I'm 47 and I have both a myspace and a facebook account. I don't actively use them, but it does help me keep in touch with friends and family who don't ordinarily send e-mail. However, I steer clear of my 23 year-old son's accounts. It's his space, none of my business, and I don't really want to know...... It would be ok, I guess, if an adult child lived far away and both of you used your account to mutually share things and keep in touch.

I don't use the accounts for dating connections or to find "who's hot" or even take part in any of the games or quizzes. I think that if an adult user wants to use it for that then that's their own choice, no matter what age.

I agree with the fact that parents of younger or minor children, however, should probably have an account of their own just to monitor what their kids are up to.

In any event, I thought the article was humorous. I enjoyed it.

I would have to say that I have face book and my wife has a myspace/facebook. I thought it was great I got in contact with an old high school friend and I think that this whole thing of people using it to check up on there children. This is one way to look at it, how about not put anything on there you would not say to you mother or father. Come on kids we where young once too, my 15 year old daughter thinks I am a dork and I don’t know ANYTHING. Lol, like I did with my parents, so I think that you should look at it as, if your parents are your friends online its one more set of eyes looking out for you. So yes you should let your parents be your friend online, because there are so many people out there that are not on your side, and sometimes you don’t really know who your friends are but you can always count on your parents.

I don't have a problem at all your any range of age ot access these sites. It sohuldnt have to be a college student or anything like that. I know many people that keep in touch through this site with friends and family. This wasn't a site meant for college kids, it was meant for everybody. It was meant to meet new people and maybe thats what some adults need is to meet some new people. As for parents friending their kids, i dont know about that. I mean yah its a good thing and a bad thing because the parents can keep track of their kids and what not to see how they behave, but also it really crosses the trust line between you and your kid. I mean do you really have to look at their myspace or facebook to see how your child really acts. I've heard some crazy stories where parents make up fake names and put fake pictures online just so their son/daughter will friend them aand they will have access to their site. I mean something should be done reagrding some children because there are to many kids 15 and under that put bad pictures or expose themselves online and really nothing can be done because there the ones putting the pictures on their.

Recently more of my friend’s parents have been getting Facebooks. My parents won’t ever get a Facebook because neither of them uses the computer that much. I had to do a project from my business communications class last year on networking, and it came to my understanding that Facebook and Myspace are sometimes used for co-workers to keep in contact, which to me is fine. The problem I see is that when you are getting interviewed for a job, employers are now looking at Facebooks to see what kind of people they are interviewing. Myself personally I have my Facebook extremely private, I don’t need people I don’t know snooping around my pictures that my friends post. I also wouldn’t add my friend’s parents as friends; I feel awkward for them seeing pictures of us at parties and stuff on the weekend.

Personally, I think it is kind of weird for parents to have a facebook or MySpace. Whenever I think about those sites I think about those sites for college kids. If my mom or dad had one and asked me to be their friend on there, I would think that they are doing it just to check on me. Also, I wouldn’t want to have my friend’s parents to add me as a friend on there because it would just be awkward. I feel that MySpace and Facebook should monitor the ages of people going the site, to keep it mainly for college kids again.

This is a really interesting question, the idea of who should be Facebook friends? While my child is only five-months-old and way too young for a Facebook account, a similiar question I am pondering is can professors and students be Facebook "friends." I am friends with some of my professors from graduate school, but graduate school is a bit of a different dynamic. Currently, I have some former students and two current students as my friends by their request. I don't see any harm in accepting requests, though I don't think I could make the request of them or those of you that do have Facebook accounts. But it is still a strange dynamic. I worry constantly that some of my high school or college friends may post something inappropriate on my site or tag me in photos that show me acting in perhaps a less than professorial manner. It is this weird mess of work and personal life that is hard to negotiate. And if my mother was thrown in the mix, it would be even more complex. But my thought is if you aren't comfortable with your mother seeing what is on your Facebook account, than maybe it shouldn't be on the World Wide Web. Most people have way too much personal information posted.

I have had a myspace and a face book for over 5 years now. It is a great way to communicate with friends, stay in touch with people, and reunite with people long forgotten. However kids now a days are using it for the wrong reasons. Having it being turned into a way for predators to contact kids is not what was intended. I do not think that it is any wrong doing by the people at myspace, there is no way for them to accurately identify how old people are that sign up to use their service. What needs to be done is that the parents need to start monitoring what their kids are doing more closely. I am tired of people blaming problems in society on violent video games, movies, television and music. We have so many safety precautions to prevent these materials to come into the hands of kids, but they ignore them, and in some cases even go around them for the kids. Parents need to step up, start using the v-chip included on all televisions, use website blockers on computers, start looking at their children's e-mails, and look at ratings of the things their kids view. Some may say it invades the child's privacy, but I do not think at young ages kid's need any privacy from their parents. Parents should start taking responsibility for what their kids do and stop finding other people to pass the blame on to.

It is so ironic that this article was brought to my attention. This situation just occurred in my house. My mom is 43 and just made a facebook. I can see where she is coming from when she says that she will be able to keep in touch with friends from high school that she hasn’t talked to in a long time. However, she thinks I am being rude because I said that I would not accept her as one of my friends. I do not have anything to hide but that was something that I could do without my parents. Now I feel like she is invading my space. I talk to her and see her every day. I think that is sufficient.