Folks, I want to talk with parents – mothers or fathers – who feel basically comfortable with their teenager(s) being on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace, etc. There are lots of parents who feel pretty passionately about watching over their teenagers in one way or another – by “friending” them, keeping their passwords, and just flat-out telling them they can’t be on these sites. These are not the parents I hope to talk with. If you are aware that your teenager is on these sites (or at least one of them), and you pretty much trust your teenager and do not intervene, I’d love to talk with you.
Please e-mail me (karen.rayne@gmail.com) or leave a comment here (http://karenrayne.com/2009/11/17/parents-and-teens-and-social-networking/)…
Please feel free to post this request anywhere you feel would be appropriate.
My daughter (17) has had a MySpace page for the last 4 years. I have no idea what the password is, I am friended on her page but I confess I can’t remember the last time I logged onto MySpace let alone went to her page. She also has a Twitter account but I don’t think she uses it, we both got one at the same but don’t really have time to “tweet”. I’ve actually never really censored what she can access on the computer (or cable), we’ve never had filtering software or keystroke recording software or any of that. We don’t check her history pages to see where’s she’s been and never have.
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Both my kids (10 and 12) are on MySpace and Facebook. Yes, I’m friends with them (and with many of their friends) but I don’t really monitor what they’re doing, at least not covertly. I don’t know their passwords, but we have a shared computer and I’m often in the room when they’re on the computer, so there isn’t much opportunity for sneaky stuff. I concur with the comment above: we’ve never had any kind of internet nanny software, and I don’t check history pages (again, I am usually within 20 feet of the computer when they’re on…not hovering, just the way our house is organized). The kids have Twitter, also, but neither uses it.
That being said, we do have the internet safety talk about once a month or so. Just reminders about not giving out personal information, etc. They tend to roll their eyes when we have this conversation, only because they already have it memorized, but I like to keep things fresh in their minds.
I have 2 children ages 16 and 11 that are on Facebook. I am friends with both of them and every now and again check out what’s going on there. I do not have acces to their accounts though.
I have seen pics of my daughter on Facebook that were taken places that I did not give her permission to go. I have asked her about them and she told me the truth, she didn’t get in trouble. But I feel that she’s keeping info from me now though I can’t do much about that I think. Can I?
We do have a heavy filter called Cyberpatrol. My daughter who is 16 has the filter set for her age group and my son who is 11 is set for his age group. And using that program we also limit their time. School days is 15 minutes for the 11 year old and 30 for the 16 year old. This does not include time for school projects, they can have more time for that of course.
The filter is b/c the computer is upstairs in the loft and we are not always up there to time them.
I have three children. The only one who is currently interested in social networking is my 11 year-old daughter who is in 6th grade. She has asked numerous times for a Facebook account, however I have denied her request to this point. I personally have an account, and when I do finally allow her (which will not be for a while), I will absolutely have her on my site as a friend as well as having her passwords. She does have an email account, but it is limited to the people I “allow” since I have placed parental controls on it.
I was shocked with the “list” you posted under Sexual Bullying! Unbelievable!