There has been a huge rise in children joining social media sites like Facebook and MySpace. Although there are some great pros and cons against this, how young is too young? Would you allow your children to join one of these sites?
First off, there are some pros to allowing children to join social sites. In my own family, I am able to share pictures with my nieces and nephews. They are able to stay on top of my daughter with us living 720 miles away.
I am able to communicate with them in the medium of their generation, online. My oldest niece, who lived on the west coast her whole life, and I have been able to bond greatly through chatting and social sites. Now that she is a grown woman with a child of her own, I love sharing stories and quick comments with her.
However, I feel there are many cons. For example, I am a heavy aircraft maintainer in the military, and my friends are not all that “cultured.” They occasionally leave comments, pictures, etc., that are not for young eyes. I try to censor what ends up on my page but am not always successful. I only hope that I can get to the page before one of my young nieces and nephews does.
Both Facebook and MySpace have age limits of thirteen for all members, but there are many young ones who lie to become members. Much of the content and comments is not even appropriate for teens. When people talk about how they got drunk or met someone it shows up on the wall for all those who are your friends. Young ones get enough of these messages from media and TV, but now seeing it glorified by those they trust is dangerous.
I am not a big fan of self-promotion, but this is the major reason I wanted to start my social website this month. Inspire Tomorrow is a Christian website where it is safe for people of all ages. There needs to be a safe place somewhere on the Internet.