Facebook for Kids

A good childhood friend of mine is the co-founder and CEO of a new online social website www.togetherville.com for kids age 6-10 that allows parents (through their own facebook acct) to monitor their child's own account. It has received many strong and positive reviews and seems to be a good way to allow children to have a presence online but still be monitored by their parents.

Hi- I would let him get a regular facebook account instead. It seems like the people that are against it for young kids may not really understand it. You can set the privacy settings so any info, pictures and content can only be viewed by his "friends". He then can only accept friend requests from people he knows and trusts. My daughter has an account and she's eleven. The deal in our house is we have befriended each other and I have complete access to her passwords and account. I log on as her and check out what's going on once a week or so with her understanding that nothing on there is really completely private, Mom can take a look anytime. I really get a feel for what's going on in her life from a kid's point of view. She handles herself perfectly and I'm proud that she is learning such an important skill. There is no way to teach a kids to understand the internet and it's complexities, they have to learn themselves. By making children wait I think you are delaying their learning process. Just the way the written word in interpreted is so important, it isn't like speaking to someone. We talk a lot about the fact that once you put it out there, you cannot take it back and it can be read and passed on to people you didn't intend. Of course this is true with email and texting as well and anyone growing up in this century needs to learn how to handle themselves. She is learning to really think about what she posts and consider how it might be received. By the time some parents allow this kind of thing the kids are teens and not into Mom or Dad looking over their shoulder. By the time she complains about our current arrangement of total access for Mom & Dad I think I'll feel more confident about trusting she's ready for more privacy and REALLY understands how this form of communication works.

We ahve a family face account and if the kids want to add a friend we say yes or no. We also have our computer in an ares that we can see them tpye and respond. it works out ok for far.

My son really wanted a facebook accountant also. He is also 10yrs I said NO. His good friend has his own facebook accountant. He said "Pete has a facebook accountant why can't i. Because I said so.
I don't want some freaky person friending my child..that might have sick motives.

you are talking about this page http://www.facebookforkids.com/ is not associated with facebook i will not let him

My 9 year old wants one too and I've been on the fence about it. She just wants to play the games, which I don't play, so I almost feel like just sharing my account with her and letting her play games with my account, but then I lose my privacy.

I have seen quite a few of my friends setting up FB accounts for their kids though...

Sorry I didn't help at all. I'm curious about other responses though. Good Luck!

If your child puts any links on his page, he can be fined $100. I am not sure how they intend to collect this money, but my friend wouldn't allow her son to do it just for that reason alone.

I think when you have a place where they gather children, it's prime locations for predators... I would in no way allow them on there.. Unless you have complete control and watch every move.. The internet is no where to mess around with.. social sites I find are terribly necessary for young children.. they should be out playing with real friends and not online..

http://fbfkids.com/pg/expages/read/About/... here is the link for parents so you can read about it... It also says on the page that they are not associated with facebook... I hope this helps you

I'm not too particular with Facebook, my daughter is 16 and has had her facebook page for about 2 years now, I'm always looking when shes on there making sure she's not doing anything that she's not suppose to be and she have a time limit on the computer. But age 10 I don't think so, too young. Just because it says for kids, it's probably no different, everybody's on facebook these days. And I feel like it's almost anothe MySpace...So I would wait unitl he is a littler older....

A review for "facebook for kids" makes me think this is a bad idea: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/12/school_together_now/

Anyone can pretend to be a kid, and join the site.

I think it's good to protect kids a long as possible from this kind of exposure. Even on this site, I sometimes am concerned that members are not always moms or people who have good reason to be on the site. You cannot be too careful with your child. I do not think regular facebook is good/necessary for a child, either. Parents do not always know how to regulate usage, and I have seen some things I do not want to see from kids who are young cousins of mine (ages 11 and 8, and they advertise themselves as 18 and 16... their mom is clueless about this, and they are talking to boys, and I think are way too trusting of the online stuff, in my opinion).

I had never heard of this site before, but it doesn't look like a very "professional" site. I guess that doesn't always have to mean anything bad though.

It also kinda bothers me that they are using the name "Facebook" in their site's name, yet they are not associated with the real Facebook.

I just don't feel that any type of social networking site is a good idea for young children. Even though this site says it's only for kids, what's to stop an adult from posing as a child in order to see pics & talk to kids in inappropriate ways?

I havent heard of facebook for kids.. but I agree with the others.. sounds like about the same thing. my son is 11 and I just let him have one. I monitor everything he does on there and has a time limit.