what is the allowable age to join facebook.?

I think the age should be set to 18 years old. Where the minor, would not be so vunerable, making posts mistakes that could damage them getting a job, or embrassement. Even if parents are there they aren't actually sitting or standing over their child's life. A minor on FB, is more dangerous in my eyes than, drinking and telling people how you feel about them. That's my opinion, my child if I had one, will wait till they are 18 years old, or out of the house to be on a social site like FB, myspace, or any others that could put them in danger.

for me, i think its the best if children will join if they are matured enough. If they know what they are doing. Minors are actually the highest persons living on facebook. They are addicted to games onlines. They play as long as they can. Parents should guide their child as well to prevent children from addicting. Children nowdays are becoming lazy of it.

Well,how could some parents guard their kids when kids owned their pc. Fine,maybe let the kids open their FB account and be friend with their parents that way,parents can monitor their kids activities. But one more problem is when parents doesn't know how to use the pc hehehe.

One would argue that there are some adults that aren't mature enough to be on social networking websites. But that is another matter entirely and if there are some adults that really should not be on social networking websites, minors really should not be. There are a lot of dangerous people in this world, predators who lurk on facebook that are not the best people to mingle with your children whether it be in the cyber world or the real world. Its way too easy to create a fake profile. Children are pretending to be adults, adults are pretending to be teenagers, men pretending to be women, its all too easy in this world. Keep your children away from social networking websites. When they turn eighteen, then the consequences can logically be there's to bear, and whatever happens on these websites, is what is going to happen. There are no two ways about it. Of course, parents not taking a look at what their children are doing is allowing them to lie about their age and get on these websites and create an entire mess of problems.

As their rules as I know is not allow those below 18 years old but if you can see almost everybody can join FB - so no age limit as long as you can make adjustment on the age of applicant if minor - that's the trend and way there.. see you around

I do not get married and have children yet, but this issue has also been my concern recently. it started since I read many news about negative effects of social networking sites (murder, lack of interest to real communications, loss of job, loss of boy/girlfriend, etc). I am myself an active user of Facebook, but I know what I should do and should not do there since I am already 27 years old now, the time when one is expected to behave completely mature in any place and condition. I have an idea to prevent more minors from joining social sites. the site management should require any applicants to scan and email their state-issued or country-issued picture ID card to show their real age and their real name. one identity card can only be used one time. the user may change the name after the account is approved. this idea does not prevent naughty kids from using other people's picture ID for application. but at least this requirement will make them more difficult to join social site. as the number and age range of social site users grows more and wider on daily basis, anyone will think twice to let his/her picture ID used by minors for social site application. I think the ideal age to join social site is 18 years old or older. because this is the time when somebody is in the end of his teenage, the time when he should have learned many things in his teenage which enables him to behave more responsible in social sites.

My 14 year old daughter is on Facebook. She knows to be very cautious, and I'm not really worried about her.

Hi. anjiel052707. It is at the age of thirteen and older that teens can join Facebook. But you have many people, that lie about their age just so that they can join Facebook. I personally think that when a child is 15 years old, they should join a social networking site then.

No I think that facebook is fun for everybody at any age. It doesn't matter what age you are because young people, adult people, and old people also go on it because it is fun for everybody. I didn't really think that facebook would be fun when I first joined it, but now I think differently because I have loved it ever since I got on it.

Hi Anjiel, I believe the right age would be 18, as per the laws of all nation to be mentally matured and its not advisable for children which may addict them as like the elders.

Whenever you think that your children is capable having the skill to differentiate what is good and what is bad , what to upload , what to comment , how to comment , how to interact , how to share and what to share ,then thats the right time to allow your child to Join the social sites .

Hi there anjiel052707!!! I think the ideal age for teenagers to used facebook is 14-16 years old becoz at this time of their life they are more open to changes and they are getting ready to be more mature and grow up.I actually started using facebook when I was in first year college and I don't have any problems that I encountered when I started to use facebook at that time. If ever a child wants to use facebook at an early age I think what the parents must do is to guide their child.Instead of using his own account why not let your child use your facebook account (parents account).By doing this you can monitor you child s activity.But if you don't want your child to use facebook just use a filter to prevent them from opening the site.

It is hard to say an accurate number of allowable age to join any social network sites. Nowadays, there always are some negative sides of anything in our lives. So what we should do is how to guide our children to avoid those bad effects and take the good ones. We may pay more attention to care about what they are thinking of and their opinions on some affairs. To make effective communication with them is another way to know about their values and attitudes towards life. Sometimes we correct some misunderstanding of theirs and ensure that they grow up healthily. Just prevent them from facebook is not a good method, I think. Telling them how to judge goodness and badness is more useful. I hope it does some work for you, anjiel~~

If I'm honest, I would say that the age of maturity at which you should allow your child to use a social networking site is when you can completely and wholly trust them not to lie to you. Everybody lies. Even tiny little lies can show that you might not completely be able to trust the person; if you are consistently being lied to, social networking isn't a good idea for your child - how can you then know what they are getting up to. Also, always know their password, just in case you need it - till they are adults they will probably be in your household and will have to abide by mum and dad's rules. What do you guys think is the age of maturity at which children should be allowed to use social networking sites?

Like most other members have already responded, 13 is the minimum set age for someone to join Facebook as per the Facebook policy/guidelines. But from what I can see, there are so many children under that age who are on Facebook. In fact, even my cousin who is only in primary school is already on Facebook, and she is only 8 years old! If you ask me, I think the most suitable age for someone to join Facebook would be 12 years old. But really, in my opinion, it is OK for someone to join Facebook as long as they are aware of what they will be exposed to on the social network (eg. viruses, potential abuse by other members) and knowing how to deal with these problems. Normally the younger people (ie. children) will fall out of this category, and for them, if they still decide to join Facebook, a parent or guardian needs to monitor the Facebook activity to ensure they are not exposed to unnecessary threats.

HI there, according to Facebook, one must me 13 years of age to use the social networking website... as for me, it is still young... one must be responsible enough when joining Facebook and other websites that contain mature content. you know, i have been hearing a lot of incidents wherein young adults are involved.. in fact, a news came up the other day about a 15 year old girl who was been raped by her "friend" in facebook. parents should not allow minors to use any of the social networking sites because it can lead to henious crimes.

i believe the age is 13 or 14. they now have a way parents can be involved with younger Facebook users. This will help protect younger users.

It boggles me too why some parents allow their children to have a Facebook account at a very young age. I was confronted this issue months ago when my five year old son asked me whether he can have a facebook account because his classmates have account and he felt he has to have one too... I firmly declined informing him, he's too young to have a Facebook, and he can use my account if he wants to play some Facebook games from time to time. However, when he asked me why his classmates' parents allowed his classmates to have their personal account, I cannot find a reason plausible enough. I think parents should be the first to protect their children. We can prevent the negative effects of social networking to our children when we disallow them to have access to Facebook before they are mature enough to understand the concept of, as you have said, responsibility.

I don't see why you need to be thirteen to keep in touch with your friends, express your opinions and keep them updated. Kids need to to be thought how to be responsible and play safe so they can learn and have fun on the net. It only has a negative impact when we use it irresponsibly.

From the page: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=173 It says: "In order to be eligible to sign up for Facebook, users must be thirteen (13) years of age or older.