Age-Appropriate Social Websites
A lot of my 10-years-old's friends have FB accounts, for which I am assuming they lied about their age. Is 10 old enough to sort through all of the drama that can come at them through a social website? I'm concerned that even with all of the safeguards in place there might be too much info.
I don't think that kids younger than 13 should be on Facebook, or other sites where they don't meet the age-minimum. I realize how hard it is to enforce this because it's really easy to fake your age. But try to get your kid interested in other, age-appropriate social sites, like the ones found here.
Online companies cannot legally collect information from kids younger than 13. It's not really about maintaining safety, but it's probably true that many tweens have not yet developed the maturity or consistent level of responsibility necessary to handle the kind of online communications that happen on social sites. It's very hard for kids to understand the consequences of their actions or to imagine that there are actual other people on the other side of that screen they are typing into—so the younger kids are, the more likely they are to be impulsive, post things that could get them into trouble or encounter cyberbullying.
Talk to your kid about behaving responsibly and respectfully online—and that means following sites' terms of service which include age restrictions.
Information provided by Caroline Knorr, Parenting Editor of Common Sense Media. For more tips about teaching your kids to be safe online, visit Common Sense Media.
report abuseOnline companies cannot legally collect information from kids younger than 13. It's not really about maintaining safety, but it's probably true that many tweens have not yet developed the maturity or consistent level of responsibility necessary to handle the kind of online communications that happen on social sites. It's very hard for kids to understand the consequences of their actions or to imagine that there are actual other people on the other side of that screen they are typing into—so the younger kids are, the more likely they are to be impulsive, post things that could get them into trouble or encounter cyberbullying.
Talk to your kid about behaving responsibly and respectfully online—and that means following sites' terms of service which include age restrictions.
Information provided by Caroline Knorr, Parenting Editor of Common Sense Media. For more tips about teaching your kids to be safe online, visit Common Sense Media.
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