I have seen people create social media accounts, mainly Facebook, for their NEWBORNS…that makes no sense to me. I guess it’s a cute way to announce the new arrival? But what about young kids? Facebook requires a person to be 13 years old to create an account, yet there are kids much younger with accounts – including my own. I created a Facebook account for my daughter, who is now 11 years old, when she was about 9. I created it so she could keep in touch with extended family, not necessarily for friends, and I have it as private as possible. However, this posed a problem for me – lying abut her age in order to create the account. What type of message does that send?
Interestingly enough, she doesn’t use Facebook. Her ‘thing’ is Instagram. She came to me and asked me if she could have an account on Instagram – what could I say? I was the one who put her on Facebook. Yes, you can ‘lock down’ Instagram, but not as much as Facebook. All her friends are on Instagram. Of course I have the login and I do check in on her, which she knows.
And now there is ooVoo – a video chat app, which she uses to chat with her friends. So now I’m feeling overloaded. There’s too much technology. There’s too much to keep up with. I just need to trust that my daughter is mature enough to make smart decisions, and I need to keep up with what she is doing on social media.
So, what age is old enough? Is there even an age? I mean, sure, there are rules and requirements for signing up, including age, but as a parent, is age enough to go on? Is it better to forgo that and base the decision on the maturity of the child?
Does your child have a social media account? If so, which one(s) and why?
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