Anyone experienced with Facebook?....

[Whitneyz]

My 14 year old wants to get one and I'm not familiar with them. Could you tell me the pros and cons of one. :confused:

Thanks,
Whitney

[Scarlett]

I don't think it is much different than My Space...I would not allow a child of mine to have an account there. At the VERY lealst *I* would have to be the admin of it with control of the password, but even then you can't really control where all your child goes on there. There is just so much garbage out there. My 16 year old nephew has one and he has me as a 'friend' so I periodically take a peak and I always regret it. Garbage.

[LoriM]

I find Facebook indispensible. Our entire youth group uses facebook, and parents and children all have accounts. We use it to communicate announcements, schedule events, and even just fun stuff like playing Scrabble together.

Facebook is MUCH better than myspace for privacy and safety issues. It is very simple to make your account private (not public) and unsearchable. Only the people you approve have access to your profile page.

Our family really enjoys Facebook...even my mother is thinking about getting herself set up on facebook so she can stay in touch with her grandchildren. (c:

[orangeblossom]

it's easy and convenient. It can be private (mine is), but even so, I can see anything that someone has sent to one of my friends. This isn't always a good thing. Maybe you can turn that off, but I haven't found it yet.

[CleoQc]

I wouldn't let a child on facebook.
Once you have an account, you get access to all the public profiles. And some are quite nasty to read! Your own account may be protected, but to read about everyone's beer bash, and drunken silliness is not fun. Not to mention all the sex stuff that goes on, like 'find out what's your stripper name' and 'what's your sexual IQ?'

It's too bad though cause it's a great application otherwise.

[Old Dominion Heather]

Heck, he doesn't even have an email address.

Facebook is a mixed bag. You have to take the bad with the good.
If he does have a page, you should get one too and have him add you as a friend. He can make his page private and then only people who have permission can see the page. My family uses Facebook to keep in touch and it has been great. Adds with mature content sometimes are on the side bar, so I would keep that in mind. If he already uses the internet and you trust him/her with that then Facebook is pretty innocuous.

There may be a minimum age... I'm not sure.

[Anne/Ankara]

Locally, we had two school districts close down their schools because of threats posted on Facebook (or was it MySpace). I would hesitate before allowing my child to use such boards...

[LoriM]

But that's kinda like saying you wouldn't let the child browse the Internet, isn't it? Any parental supervision that works for general Internet usage would also apply with a tool like Facebook. There is nasty stuff in every quadrant of cyberspace.

Thus far, my children have shown themselves both worthy and capable of discernment on facebook. And I really enjoy receiving the snippets of reports on where they've been, what groups they've joined, and what they are talking about with their (our) friends.

[LoriM]

That depends on whether you are chatting publicly (on their "wall") or privately in a message. I love that my kids have "public" conversations with each other. It's a bit like eavesdropping, but with their approval. And getting to hear both sides of the conversation, since I'm friends with all their friends.

[LoriM]

Playing Scrabble with my friends from here and from other states on facebook is one of my sanities. GRIN. I guess our network of friends must use facebook very differently from the way most of you experience it. Our youth pastor invites all the teens over to his house (IRL) with "events" on facebook. They network through a group they've formed to plan our summer youth revival. My husband's ROTC detachment uses it to organize field training prep sessions, and to plan meetings. It's not unlike the community we have here at WTM, except that we all actually know each other in real life (LOL!) and see each other on Sunday or at work.

[Mama Lynx]

Locally, we had two school districts close down their schools because of threats posted on Facebook (or was it MySpace). I would hesitate before allowing my child to use such boards...

Anne, are you saying you would hesitate because others (may) have used it as a forum for threats? Threats can be made anywhere - here, over the phone, in the mail, in notes passed at school ... it's not the medium that's the problem there.

I am curious about the kinds of threats that got two districts closed down. Do you have a link, or more info? I would like to learn about this.

I have a Facebook page. I would probably let my kids have pages, provided I had full access. However, mine have email addresses, and I allow them to search the web, too.

[Jami]

Pretty familiar with it. Dh is part of a company now creating games on Facebook. Those of you on it, search for PackRat. It's a very fun trading card game. Highly addictive. ;) And I love playing Scrabble with my sister and other friends. That said, I don't know that 14 is old enough for the responsibilites that come with an online life, heck, I'm not probably responsible enough. It really depends on how much you're watching their interactions, if you know their "friends", if they know how to avoid people who need to be avoided, just like real life. Ask me in 7 years when my oldest is that age!

Jami

[CleoQc]

But that's kinda like saying you wouldn't let the child browse the Internet, isn't it?

I don't let my children browse the internet. They may have access to one site, and they know not to leave it. They're actually pretty good at this. So I'm pretty sure if I let my kids watch Nasa.gov (or whatever's the URL for NASA) that they won't find porn. But on Facebook? They'll find it without leaving the site.