Ten Safety Tips for Facebook Parents

While Facebook is the social media that keeps family and friends connected, there are many dangers that parents should be aware of. Now that summer vacation has arrive, children and teenagers are spending more time on the Internet. Facebook being the leading social network, has reeled in more children under the age of 18. When signing up for Facebook, the site's registrations includes "Birthday," which includes a statement that those under 18 will have content filtered and specific settings. But a user can be at least 13 years old to register. Allowing anyone to manually enter in their birthday, it can be easy for anyone to fill out false information. But just because this is asked there is no way of truly knowing the age of the child, therefore it is imperative parents learn how to become involved. In the beginning of Facebook's takeoff is was a social networking site solely for college students with a valid .edu email, now anyone can sign up therefore there are restrictions and dangers that all parents should know about Facebook.


First a few statistics:

1. Talk to your child about Facebook Safety. Below is a starting point for research with a list of resources. Make sure that you always have a personal Facebook profile.

2. Create a Facebook Group: You can set join permissions on groups so that they are either open to anyone, closed (where users must get administrator approval to join) or secret (invite only). Groups have administrators that manage the group, approve applicants or invite others to join. Administrators can also appoint “officers” who are nominally in charge – however, being an officer doesn’t mean the person has the ability to administer the group. You can invite people that you are familiar with: Family and children's friends, family friends and organizations of interest. Your child will have to create a Facebook profile to gain access into the group, unless you allow them to become the administrator. Safety rules and privacy settings for creating your child's Facebook profile are provided below.

2. Create a personal profile for your child and gain full access of email and password. Make sure you have access to view the email content which is being used for Facebook as well. This does not mean you have to view their profile every day, but at least twice a week. View complete Facebook privacy settings.  Privacy Settings for Facebook.

3. Create a Family Facebook Profile. If there is a family Family Facebook, each individual has access to the profile. You can monitor friend requests and current friends to ensure that you have accepted them to view your family's profile. You can set this up under your personal account and change the profile name in settings. 

4. Keep in contact with teachers and school officials. Make sure that there are not any problems going on between students and check that friends list, make sure you know every parent of that Facebook friend and that there are not issues between your child and one of the children labeled as a "friend."

5. Make sure that the child is monitored closely when using the Internet and Facebook. If your child is a minor, you are responsibly for everything that your child does on Facebook and the Internet. You have to remember that the Internet never forgets. Everything that is posted can spread like wildfire. Parents should view safety prevention tips for Facebook.

6. Utilize Facebook as the leading resource for tutorials, FAQs, forum and Safety Center for privacy settings. Through your adult profile, view Facebook's Family Safety Center. Where you can learn about your family's safety and get updates when you "like" the Page. This is the number one resource to go to.

7. Become familiar with news and updates about Facebook. Here is also FAQs about Family Facebook Safety from Facebook. Here is an article and video from CBS New York entitled, Facebook Unveils Family Safety Center To Fight Bullying, Privacy Concerns.

8. Join a parent network on and off of Facebook, to ask questions and gain suggestions from other parents. 

9. For your child's personal profile, never accept any new friend requests from people you do not know, do not include birthday information and location information.

10. Do not allow your child to post any personal pictures. An avatar for Facebook is a safe way to go. Whether it be a character, symbol or saying it is a safer way to use Facebook.

Facebook can be used in a safer way to keep in contact with family and friends, but you as a parent are the only one who can create that safe Facebook environment.


Resources:
Facebook Family Safety Center
Surfing the Net with Kids
Free Trial Facebook Safety Alarm from ZoneAlarm
View other up and coming social networks. Stay Updated by SafeKids
Parenting Quiz about Online Safety 
Free ebooks on Facebook Safety