Being an avid web surfer and student of social media sites, I found something really interesting tonight while meandering around cyberspace: many of my students, who shall here remain nameless, have some kind of online presence. Many of these fell under the ubiquitous Facebook umbrella. Now I enjoy Facebook; in fact, I use it for many things such as connecting with my family, hosting personal pictures, and learning of online technologies (I once created a group called I Want a Smartboard.)
This evening I also discovered something else: if a child attempts to create a Facebook account and is not thirteen years old, Facebook will not allow membership ("Sorry, you are ineligible to sign up for Facebook."). In fact, the Facebook policy site states:
No information from children under age 13. If you are under age 13, please do not attempt to register for Facebook or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.
That noted, Facebook does provide advice for parents: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=937, which is worth checking out. There are a number of additional sites including Facebook for Parents. You can also contact your child's teacher.
