Facebook - Tecumseh,OK

Absolutely not! There are plenty of other websites that are educational and fun that are suitable for children. Besides, it says in FB's rules that you have to be at least 13 years old to use FB.

No, I would not allow my 8 year old to be on Facebook. I wouldn't mind certain websites for learning games though. I would set it up under the Internet Options to ONLY allow certain websites that you enter in. That way you won't have to worry about her wondering off in cyber world.

there's no real need for her to be on facebook, there are plenty of games elsewhere.

that being said, my cousin in law lets her son be on facebook, but he has to friend his parents. Most of his friends are also us, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. If he says/does anything inappropriate online, his mom has generally heard about it within 5 minutes. (he once said something about a teacher, which we had him remove quickly.)

Part of the problem with social networking and children is they dont understand that ANYONE can read that stuff. Teachers, strangers, whoever. A cousin of mine posted a pic of her and a friend with fake cigarettes, which we had her remove quickly, before anyone saw it and thought they were real. She could have gotten kicked off the swim team.

*Edit: my friend has 2 girls, at 14, they had a Facebook account and internet access, and was online. Good girls. The computer was in the living room. She monitored them. But... a guy, was approaching them... and being very suggestive. And wanted to meet them. The girls thought they were 'smarter' than some 'old dorky guy.' They thought it was a joke. They, however, then got scared about it... and the Mom reported him to the Police & Facebook. The girls, just thought it was fun and cool to have so many "friends" on Facebook. To kids... accumulating tons of "friends" on Facebook is like a 'game.' They don't see.... the ramifications of this.
Nothing is ever, fail proof. Even if you monitor your kids. No parent, can be every single second, 'watching' what their kid is doing online.
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She is 8 years old...only in 2nd or 3rd grade.
NO I would not... let an 8 year old on Facebook.
You can get fun games from other places.
She does not need Facebook per say, just for games.

I have an 8 year old girl, in 3rd grade. I would NOT NOT NOT, allow her on Facebook. At all. Nor any other online account, just for her. Not at all.

Online and cyber bullying and child predators... and worse, are online.
An 8 year old... cannot manage that, emotionally or maturity wise.... nor psychologically. The human brain... is not even fully developed until 26 years old.

sorry I haven't read the tons of other responses....my daughter is 12 and does not have a facebook page...she would like one especially considering that many of her friends have them....I just can not bring myself to let her willingly lie about her birth year to attain the page, what happens when she wants to drink at 19 but the law says she has to be 21? It's really important to me to show consistency about obeying rules and it starts with the little things. So, if I were you, I would wait and set the example of being honest.

Would I allow it for an 8 yr old? No way.
There are lot's of places with games besides Facebook.
Facebook has a rule which states you must be 13 or older and though some people ignore it, it's really not a place for kids.
http://www.shaunthesheep.com/games
http://pbskids.org/games
http://www.neopets.com

My 16 yo has a FB account, but my 13 yo does not (thankfully he is not interested).

IMHO 8 year olds are too young for FB.

I would not allow my children a facebook account. But that is just my choice. My husband and I decided if our children get on a computer they will have limited access and absolutely NO social networks.

Nope! Just my opinion. I have a 9 year old and 13 year old. I would not let my 9 year old have one. Actually she has no interest. There are plenty of other programs out there. My 13 year old has one got it a few months before 13. FB is not the learning answer. Just my opinion!

I believe you can easily disable her wireless access. That said, I think monitored internet use is acceptable. There is software that let's you select allowable sites. Plus, I owuld generally stand over her while she uses it. For instance, I woudln't allow it in her room. I have a six year old and haven't gottne to this yet so I don't have specific recommendations.

I woud not allow her on FB. I think it is totally inappropriate. She can e-mail her relatives, but FB is a bad door to open to a pre-teen which is practically what she is. Most of the games on FB are scams to get personal informaiton - I don't even play those. When you say "allow" access to your profile info, they take that and often use it very inappropriately depending on who developed the app. FB itself doens't allways create those programs -- it can be some creepy guy in a basement somewhere.

Another piece of advice, if it has a webcam, disable it. I have heard of those being hacked so that creeps can view your family online.

I would load up some of her favorite movies, buy her a couple educational software games, and let her go to american girl, pbs,, and nick sites with supervision.
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no too many pedophiles and what happens the one time you are distracted for a second??

She does not need facebook at this age. . She can play free games on Pogo.com and a ton of other free game places on the web.

Once she is more mature, if you allow her on facebook, you can do like our family (even my grandmother is on facebook and friends with all of her grandchildren and great, great grandchildren) and have all of her relatives on there as well as her friends that YOU approve. If they begin misusing it, you can block them or take her off.

Let her gain the privilege of the use of the computer. when you see she is using it properly, then you can give her more access, but keep an eye on ll of it. Even an innocent search can turn up some inappropriate places.. Make sure her settings ore really safe..

No way. My kids won't have Facebook until they're out of my house. Jobs are looking at things that are posted on Facebook. An 8 year old doesn't have the maturity to know what is appropriate and what isn't. If you want to let her play FB games, let her play on your account...don't give her her own account.

Check out ClubPenguin.com and RoadBlocks.com Those are safe sites for an 8 year old.

nope, why dont you get a f/b and let her play the games, if she strays from the game pages then no more computer. facebook is not for kids

My 8yo son's computer has total internet access. There are too many amazing things online for me to nix that (although I'll disconnect the airport if he's in trouble / has lost internet privileges).

He's not allowed on:

- facebook
- youtube without an adult sitting with him

No, no facebook for children, you can download those same games and put them on your computer and if you can not find the exact same ones you can find simmilar games and purchase them. No facebook for children.

I agree with everyone. NO to FB. And NO to email too. Although a lot of ISPs do a decent job of controlling SPAM there are far too many messages that slip through the crack and some are waaaaayyyy too bizarre for a kids' eyes.

Disney, Nickelodeon and PBS Kids all have great websites that include games as well.

We just allowed our 16 yr old to get on facebook only due to she is on yearbook staff and it made it easier for her to interview other students or to setup photo ops at games/school events. (yes, we still monitor her activity.)As far as an 8 yr old, in my opinion I would not do it, only because they are too young to be on such a network or any socializing network; plus with all the cyber bulling going on and other issues that arise...no matter how safe or good your intentions are it doesn't mean others have the same innocent intent. Just do what you are planning with buying software and allowing your child to use online educational sites not tied into a social network, limiting access while online and all will be okay because you are on the right track.

I would watch out some of those games are full of spyware and can damage your computer

I would not allow an 8 yr old facebook access. We do allow internet access with parental controls.

I agree NO FACEBOOK! You're not even allowed to have an account on there until you're 13, so she really has no business being on there, games or not...it's just a minefield for a young child anyway, because ANYONE can find her. If she wants to play games, go to GameStop (or similar) and let her buy some inexpensive computer games...or Yahoo/Google/etc all have online games, and you don't need a public profile to play them.

Absolutely NO on letting my 8 year old have a facebook. There are creepy people out there pretending to be kids to get at children. No thank you! But thats just me.

No on Facebook.

Yes on internet. My daughter is 8 and needs access for school.

But - YES, monitor every move. Sometimes my kids want to hear a song or watch a funny animal video on You Tube - I sit there with them - cuz' you know how You Tube is.

Even if you are sitting right there I wouldn't give her access to Facebook. She is too young and you'd be lying about her age to get her an acct. What does that teach her? I have friends who let their kids play on their FB accounts. I wouldn't allow that either.

Just my .02

No way. You can find many other educational games and resources from sites and programs that are specifically for children. Facebook is NOT for children. Our 11 year old has parental security software on her laptop that blocks all social networking sites. She doesn't even ask. She only uses her computer for Webkinz, pbskids.org, Disney, and sometimes for her own research and school project use.

No. Definitely not Facebook. I have a hard time with my 13 year old having access to it!!!! I have to constantly monitor her on it and its a pain!
Just give her access to the internet and you know there is a way to block certain sites for children under a certain age. Its somewhere in the admin settings. My 5 year old is on the internet all the time on Nick Jr and Barbie.com. There are plenty of games on there to play besides using Facebook. Hope this helps!

nope there are a lot of games that she can play- addicting games.com, jumpstart.com, club penguin.com- none are on facebook my son is 8 he has his own laptop but he is not allowed on facebook or myspace. My 14y is allowed only if I am his friend.

OMG-she's 8!!! Please do not be the one to introduce her to Facebook. And to be honest...if my son's friends were on Facebook at that age I would strongly discourage him to be friends with them. It would not be the kind of kid (or parents-actually mostly parents b/c I wouldn'e blame the kid) that I would want my son to associate with. There are SO many educational and entertaining games out there if you want her to be a gamer. I would discourage that as well though-esp if she is not asking for them.

No to FB for an eight year old.....maybe in five or six years. There are so many other resources for her at this point. She does not need to be an early bird in the facebook world.

Haven't read any of the other responses. But my answer is absolutely NOT. my daughter is 8 and i personally think that is waaayyy too young. sometimes, she plays a couple little games on facebook on MY page. when i'm sitting right there next to her. my gosh, they can click on anything and something totally unrelated can pop up. kids can also be so gullible. facebook in my opinion is not a good idea for an 8 year old. i think you are even "supposed" to be a certain age to have a facebook account, even though i'm sure tons of ppl don't follow that rule.

I didn't read the other responses so I am sorry if I am repeating. Instead of facebook try zynga.com. Have Fun!
ADDED: Sorry I forgot to explain that zynga.com are the same exact games that facebook has (not all of them, but all the ones by that company).

even FB thinks you shouldnt let her on FB. the agreement on there tells you, you have to be at least 12.

An 8 year old does not need to be on Facebook.

There are plenty of other places on the internet where you can find educational and entertaining games.

Just my opinion.

NO WAY! There are many other alternatives out there for games and educational programs that don't involve Facebook. Kudos to you for encouraging her to learn the computer skills - but keep her away from the community pages...

My 4-year-old has a computer with internet access. We set up the parental controls and he mostly plays Starfall, PBS kids, Nick Jr. and Disney games. I think that I would be leery of FaceBook for a young child, but there are plenty on there. Good luck!

Here's my opinion on Facebook: No way! Even FB itself says specifically in their FAQ section:

"No information from minors 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."

You can find PLENTY of other educational games on the internet without giving her Facebook access. Your child is far too young to be using a site like that, with or without supervision.

As far as internet access: I do believe she should be allowed to use the internet. There are many enriching games, videos, and programs available on the internet. As long as you are continually supervising her, I don't see a problem with that.

I wouldn't do FB unless you extremely limited her functionality on there. You would also have to limit her friend base. The problem with that is that while there are a lot of great games on there, they NEED a very large friend base. You can play the games without that, but they're very difficult and become boring quite quickly if she couldn't play simply because she didn't have enough friends. I know this from experience. I too like the games but I'm not willing to add many strangers to my friends list just so I could play a stupid game and I'm even less willing to do it to a minor, especially one that young. I've gone through this with my 5 yo. She begs me for a little virtual pet on there every day but no way am I willing to expose her to it. Besides, it's against FB policy for a minor to have an account. There are tons of other sites online with great educational content. You don't need to take her to a social networking site.

You can start with Kiddoz (a child friendly browser that has tons of fun stuff; you can upgrade to premium for added benefits), Starfall, PBS Kids, etc.

In this day and age I would say as long as you are totally monitoring it that it is something you can do together and have fun. It's a great tool for when you need to ground them (no computer today, sorry...)
She's too young to be alone on it tho.... you know how it is, you can push one button and crazy things can happen.

Facebook games gives the computer viruses. I use pogo for games! my younger son and I have a blast on that site!

You probably got plenty of responses already but I thought I'd share also. =) I wouldn't do FB.

I think it depends on how trustworthy she is and how well you can moniter her. For my 9 year old, yes, I'd allow it. But, facebook would be set to friends only and I'd go into it frequently to check it out. I'd also have a rule about no accepting or searching friends without me. As for the games, I guess I'd just have a rule about chatting with strangers... If the conversation changes from talk about the game to anything else, get me.
My daughter is homeschooled online, so she is very good with the Internet and it is a must! She has a bunch of websites she likes to play on too. When she thinks of one or hears of one, I look it up and add it to her bookmarks. She is only allowed to click on her bookmarks. She is NEVER allowed to google anything, and even if she knows the web address, she is not allowed to type it in (in case of typos sending her somewhere else). She uses sites like starfall, Disney, NickJr, etc. If you are thinking FB mostly for the games, look into msn games instead.
One last thought. There are programs you can load on your computer that email you detailed reports of your child's activities including every word typed in a chat.
Having said all that, I'll repeat what I said before... It really depends on how well you can trust your son to follow your computer rules.

Quite somply, NO!!!! I would not allow my young child or tween access to facebook, myspace, twitter, or any other networking website or application - including games. TOO MANY WIERDOS out there wanting to prey on kids!!

I would NOT give an 8 year old access to Facebook, and probably not the internet at all.

No way, I wouldn't. My lil sister in law got on it and friended every person on my friend list. I let my MIL know right away of course, once I found out! But you never know how people are with their site, if friends of their friends can see a lot of their info etc. I think it is an open door to a predator finding a young child. I would not do it. I know some kids who are like 13 on it and they are more into FB than having a real conversation with someone. Don't get me wrong, I love facebook! But I think it is much better for older teens and adults. Plus you would have to lie about her age for her to have an account, not something you would want her to think was Ok. You can always let her use your page to access games. Pull the game up for her and check on her often. She couldn't friend anyone because it's your page and you would see them there. Good luck in your decision, but no I wouldn't do it.

No FB! Your daughter may be a wonderful girl and mature for her age, but she is way too young. I would hope that she doesn't have many friends on FB. I would worry about cyberbullying.

There are lots of games online. Not only on FB but kid friendly places too, but those places don't have the security set up FB does, My grandkids all have their own email accounts and I have them signed up on FB but have their accounts hidden from search. My friends can't even see them listed in my friends.

Our kids computer is in the middle of the dining room and living area. It is in plain sight from everyone in the room. No one can go anywhere that cannot be seen by everyone.

I feel the kids are safe. They are never on unless there is an adult in the room and they are never allowed to friend anyone that I don't personally know or the person has to be friends of a friend of mine.

A lot of the FB games depend on social networking. I have tons of friends who have kids too. If they know someone and have let them friend their kids then I will allow them to friend mine. It is for the neighbor aspect only. They don't chat or visit with those other people. A lot of those people are adults just wanting to have more neighbors anyway. So, my grandkids are friends with my high school friends parents, their siblings, and I am 51 so that makes them 70+ yrs. old in general, they are friends with my college friends kids and grandkids too. They play FarmTown, FarmVille, Millionaire City, Camelot, one really loves YoVille (She likes to play the motorcycle races over and over and over or go fishing), my FIL players Island Paradise so they are neighbors to him but don't play, I have a lot of friends that they do that with too also

my keyboard just broke and i can"t use my cap lock ur shift key> sorry this looks odd but it just broke>

i think that she would be fine< if you want just let her play some games using your account> that way you"ll be sure to know exactly what she is doing>

The minimium age that a person is supposed to be to sign up for Facebook is 13. However, that kids and their parents (I for one) have set up accounts for children younger. My son is 12 and I set up an account for him, mostly so I would have another "neighbor" for the games I play. I used his account more then he did. However, I had to lie about his birthday to set it up and for some reason months later, Facebook disabled his account with no explanation why. I can't imagine that they found out he was too young, but it is possible. I decided to wait until he turns 13 in March to create another account for him. It just seems easier that way. If you do decide to set up an account for her, you should definitely "friend" her on there to monitor it.

Both of my kids have internet access. Our computer is in the living room. They only go to pre-approved sites-the ones that are already on that drop-down menu. Even though there are ways around it, technically you have to be at least 13 to have a FB page. There are ALOT of games that she can play that are age appropriate without FB access.

Save some $. I have a website with links to educational sites as I'm a teacher called Mrs. L's Rocketlaunchers. There are links there to Math and Typing games. Dance Mat Typing is excellent and was built for the schools in the UK.

Try Togetherville it is a safe online site for kids you control. We have been on for almost a year. I love it we have had no problems at all. My kids are 11 and 7. There are games and it is not free speech everything has to be approved by you and the Togetherville team. http://togetherville.com/ enjoy!!!

My daughter is 10 and she is on FB. FB is not a terrible thing. I monitor her on it, she asks me who she can be friends with and if someone sends her a friend request we ALWAYS talk about who it is and if their friends friends would be someone I would want her to see on FB. She was always wanting to be on my FB so we set her up an account herself. She is friends with family as well as friends. You can keep information private and only for friends. Good Luck with your decision.

Interent access yes, facebook no. There are tons of games without needed facebook. When my dd was first on the computer I put wed site in her favorites and this was the only ones she was allowed to use.

My 7 year old also has internet access, which I monitor when the computer is on. He uses it to play learning games on his school's website and a few games on some children's website. Sometimes we sit down together and watch funny animal videos on YouTube as well. I think it's fine as long as the child is being monitored while using the computer.

Short and sweet:

No Facebook