Facebook... bad for children

Facebook is highly preferable to Myspace for teens and tweens. Trust me, whether they belong to a social networking site or not, they will still spend countless hours talking to their friends. To teens, friends are everything, parents cease to exist at best, are considered a disease at worst. You did the exact right thing, you got your own page and added them as friends so you can keep an eye on them. I have my daughter on my Facebook list, she accuses me of stalking her. I don't comment on her wall or photos because she is embarrassed to have a parent on there. But really, all I need to do is keep an eye on her postings and slip her a little email if I see anything that needs to be removed or edited for content. It can be very effective, especially since the other option I give her is having no computer at all. As to the other kids on her list(I am told by my daughter that I am the only freak parent who stalks their kids on Facebook), their parents should be on there and keeping an eye out. If you know the parents well, you could wise them up as to what's going on online, but you have to tread carefully when ratting out a kid to a parent. The parents are likely to resent you, even if you have good intentions.

It is not the site itsself that is bad for children, it is the way the children use it. Parents need to educate children as to what is right and wrong, what is appropriate and inappripriate. Talk to your children and explain to them that certain things are inappropriate and tell them WHY! Encourage them to ANONYMOUSLY report illegal content to moderators.

This will not "poinson their mind," just like TV, books, movies, etc wont "poison their mind," as long as you take the time to epxlain to them the difference between what is real, and what isn't. These sites provide an outstanding opportunity for people to be able to create (muisc, art, etc), and to also have a nice degree of success, without having to worry about big companies stealing their hard work. Yes, there are some bad things out there, but that's life. As long as you give them good guide lines, and keep focused on watching them, so that they don't go out of control, then all will be ok.

It's not facebook that's making kids and adolescents act inappropriately. Young people have always felt an urge to experiment with new things, especially things that are taboo or rebellious in nature. Facebook is merely a tool that caters to what young people want to do: fit in, impress others, experiment with their identity. Whether or not facebook exists will not change how your children or other people's children will behave, it will only change the extent of and how they show to those they want to impress why they should be impressed by what they're flaunting. If facebook didn't exist, they would just find something else to waste their time on.