Facebook.com is a site where users from ages 13 to 130 post information about themselves and share information with their friends and acquaintances. Let’s be very clear about the minimum age for using Facebook: no one under the age of 13 should be using Facebook or have a Facebook account. There are 3 reasons for this:

1. It is against the Facebook terms of use to have a Facebook account if you are under the age of 13.
2. Facebook can be a very dangerous place for someone under the age of 13, as they may not be old enough and experienced enough to recognize the danger signs.
3. Children younger than 13 are not emotionally ready to handle the “virtual bullies” that they may come into contact with.

Occasionally you may see a story in on your local news about a child who was bullied on Facebook by their peers. This is very real and happens more than you would think. Mean-spirited kids can create throwaway Facebook accounts (or use their own) to post embarrassing or slanderous remarks about another child, most often a classmate. This type of activity can be very emotionally distressing to a child and can lead to behavior issues and in some cases suicide.

If you child has a Facebook account it is important that you monitor the interactions your child has with other Facebook users. One way to do this is to create your own Facebook account and add your child as your “friend”. This will allow you to use your account to see what types of posts your child is making.

You can take this one step further by having your child provide you with their username and password for their Facebook account. This will enable you to log in to your child’s account and view what their friends are posting. This is the recommended approach as you will have access to any pictures or videos that may be associated with your child’s account.

Remember too that Facebook has an integrated real-time chat feature. This allows anyone on your child’s friend list to chat with them. The text that is shared during these conversations is not necessarily saved on your child’s computer so there may be no way for you to know what was being discussed. The best way to manage this is to use your child’s Facebook account information to log in to their account and manage their friends list. If you see someone on the list that looks like they don’t belong there, ask your child about them. If they can’t provide a satisfactory reason for having that person on their list, remove that person from the list. Look for older people and people that your child wouldn’t normally hang around with.

The information that your child enters into their Facebook profile can be seen by everyone on the Internet if the proper privacy settings are not in place. Make sure to review your child’s Facebook profile privacy settings to insure that they are set so that only friends can see their information. As always, do not allow your child to put any personal information in their Facebook profile. This type of information includes school name and grade, favorite hangouts, home address, phone number or any other personally identifying information. It’s information like this that stalkers and predators are able to use to locate your child.

Using Facebook should be a fun experience. By including the monitoring of Facebook in your routine of monitoring your teen’s Internet usage, you can keep Facebook safe for your child.