Should a responsible 11 year old be allowed to join Facebook?

[Dynamicsofa851]

Hi my lil sis desperately wants to join facebook. She is very almost 12 and she says she would only add her friends, family and people in her class. She is very responsible and aware of the dangers and all that. I'm asking you coz I don't have facebook but most of her friends do and she wants to keep in touch with friends from her old school & family. She's just started secondary school and she wants to start talking to new people so I think she's the right age what do you think? Any advice?

[Fola]

Just give her a Barbie and in 5-6 years she can have a facebook

[Lex]

If she's not an idiot, she should be allowed to have a facebook account.

[Kenny]

Its completely up to you. For the most part its a friendly and safe site, but it can get very hostile and dangerous if she stumbles across the wrong people. I would recommend that if you do give her a facebook accounts, you chose the password and monitor her conversations with friends etc until she is at least 13 and a bit more mature.

[jackie m]

What about your parents what do they say about it because it is up to them and not you - If I had my way I would ban everyone from facebook as it causes a lot of trouble in relationships.

[Ryan]

I would recommend making her set her privacy settings to high (such as only her friends can view her wall and info) and maybe make her use a pseudonym as her name e.g. instead of using her first name or second name she could put "Little" or another word that would make her kind of anonymous, and if you are afraid pedophiles could go after her then make sure her profile picture is not a picture of her, but a cartoon etc.

[Brandon]

You could make her a Facebook account, but make sure she gives you to the password. If she gets bullied or does something online, you need to be responsible and help her through it. At least until she is at the appropriate age to use Facebook.

Be very careful, talking to new people online is dangerous, since you never know who you are actually talking to. just manage her account and make sure she doesn't get into trouble.

Those are my 2 cents.

[Josh]

I think so, but as she is young, have a look at the privacy settings so no bullies can get through. It's perfectly fine if it's simply for adding and talking to friends

[Clive J]

You are confident that she will be safe on Facebook, so I see no reason to disagree with your view.

However there are dangers, so keep an eye on what she is doing and make that a condition of allowing her to join.

I assume your parents are ok with this.

[Happy Hippie]

I would say NO. Not now, not ever. And you shouldn't either. See what it does to you, your sister, your father, your mother, anyone who lives in there: http://terranovauk.blog.com/2012/10/20/t...lopment-2/ It's not a question of what you do on Facebook, but what it does you you...