I tell my daughters (5 and 4) they are not allowed to wear makeup until they are as tall as me. Same goes for FB and cell phones. I'm 5'6", my husband is 6'3" so they may reach my height before I am truly ready! lol

16 with the understanding that any time I can look over their shoulder.

It blows my mind that everyone and their grandma has a Facebook page now. When I signed up in 2004 it was exclusively for students with authorized .edu email accounts at select universities, and my how it has grown. It's a good thing and a bad thing!

Agreed. As much as I enjoy my family members being on facebook - I really wish it was still university exclusive. It's become another myspace - filled with advertisements, spam, and ridiculousness.

My kids don't know their passwords, they can't get logged on unless I do it for them. They can't add friends without preapproval and that includes chat. I have a 12 and 14 yr old.
They don't seem very interested anyway, it's more for family connection than anything because they don't go on enough to play the games. We have a large extended family, scattered all over.

I don't have children nor do I ever plan on having any so I don't have an answer for you. But my sister's two oldest daughters both have FB accounts (they are just barely teenagers). I don't agree with kids of that age having a FB though. But I have not friended either of my nieces because I know some of the stuff I talk about my sister would not feel is appropriate. So out of respect for my sister I don't friend them, or any kids under the age of 17.

An aspect of Facebook, that I don't think most kids are mature enough to handle (heck, I'm not sure I'm mature enough to handle) is the ettiquette and social obligation issues.

I have a facebook page, but I almost never go there (so I rarely go to friends' facebook pages either. I have a cell phone, but I almost never have it on. I have email, but I only check it about twice a week (if I remember).

It seems that many people (people you'd never have expected it from) get quite offended if you're not available to them 24/7. I look at the crap people post on my wall, and I think "am I supposed to respond to all of this?" It's like spam, only from family members (which I get enough of in my email).

It makes me want to be entirely anti-social, because there's no way to keep up with the endless stream of crap (I really didn't need to know you picked up bread from the grocery store last Tuesday, and not only do I not care that you got smashed last Saturday night and hooked up with some guy whose name you can't remember, I REALLY do not want to see the pictures).

And people sending "gifts" from games I've never played and have no intention of ever playing (with messages that make it sound like I'm a big meanie if I don't go into the stupid game to accept the gift - because they get stupid prizes for dragging me into the game, which I don't have time for - so if I don't play along I'm a big, party-pooping crabbypants).

My children are huge! LOL! My nine year old is going to be taller than me in just a few years. LOL!

if Facebook is still around by the time I have kids and by the time they are teenagers, they will not be having a Facebook until they are 18. My fiance and I firmly believe in no personal computers before 18 (or at least with internet, I had a personal computer in my room but I didn't have internet), and no cell phones before they have a driver's license. We're pretty old-fashioned, but my parents like that (although I was a member of bolt.com when I was in high school, one of the first social networking sites, and I wish I still had it before it got deleted and then re-vamped). But bolt wasn't like Facebook, it was more anonymous. You had a username instead of your real name.

Of course, I joined Facebook when it was still thefacebook and when it was solely for college students with a college email account (this was back in early 2005).

Anyways, me and my fiance have decided to be a one-computer, two-TV household (one in the family room, one in our room), like how it was for us when we were kids. We both feel that kids are really jaded now because of technology and it's just too easy for them now to be lazy and spend all of their time on the internet than playing outside. Even when my brother had a nintendo and would play it, he'd play it for maybe 30 min-1 hour a day, but now, kids play it for HOURS and HOURS.

So we're going to be strict like that, and just encourage our kids to be kids, and tell them to worry about that stuff when they're adults. They don't need that stuff when they're kids.

Likely, there will be no Facebook until they are legally adults, in this house. It's just unnecessary, and can lead to easily avoidable trouble for you our children. We're fans of a family computer, anyway. Our kids cannot have their own computer until they are old enough to assemble one and compile their own kernel, which won't likely be until they are in middle school or high school. Even then, their online activities will be necessarily limited until we think they are mature enough.

Having a Sysadmin for a dad is nice and intimidating when it comes to inappropriate online activities, anyway. They will know ahead of time that we WILL catch inappropriate content, which we're hoping will be a decent deterrent for teen curiosity.

^^^THIS!

When I go to the grocery store, I don't walk through the aisles shouting, "I am buying oranges now!" and "Mm, the blueberry yogurt is my favorite!" because I would get thrown in the hoosegow for disturbing others' shopping experience. But typing it on Facebook as though the cousin of the sister of the boyfriend of my World of Warcraft guild leader's second cousin cares that I'm buying oranges is somehow a new social requirement!?

Oy. It is just nutty.

I...I don't really have a conclusion to this post. Just imagine me wandering off muttering about "kids today" and "get off my lawn" and such.

I definitely think 10 is too young. But more than a specific age, I think it's other factors that should play into the decision:
- Do your children understand the implications of mean, rude, crude or biased things being said on the internet by them or about them? Do they understand (really understand!) what this could do to other people or to themselves or their chance of getting into college or into a job?
- Do they understand that certain things should not be shared on the internet with anyone b/c there are people out there that have bad intentions? Do you talk to them about sexual predators on the web or about giving out personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, etc.?
- Do YOU understand (and can you properly explain to your children) the privacy settings on FB and how you can use them to keep strangers from reading your stuff? FB allows you to pretty much control who can see what information, but you have to spend time learning about it and changing the settings.
- Are you willing to check up on them and their online activities? Are you willing to make time to go online and see what they are doing? Do you have other people (grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.) who can keep an eye on their FB page?

No matter what age the kids are, parents should take care to explain to their kids what good and bad can come of the internet. They need to know that not everyone is their friend. They need to realize that you shouldn't just accept every friend request. They need to understand that kids are cruel to each other and that online bullying is a real problem.
But most importantly, you as the parent need to make rules for your kids (and yourself) about using FB in a safe way.
- Don't let them sign up for anything you don't fully understand.
- Sit down with them when they create their profile and explain what each thing means.
- Make them give you their password (and check frequently if they haven't changed it )
- Check up on them!
- Be willing to get tough when they don't follow your rules. You can have their account deleted or their computer taken away if you need to. FB is not a right, it's a privilege!

I love FB b/c I have friends on 5 continents that I can keep in touch with, but I personally don't see any reason why kids, who see their friends at school all day long, need to communicate online with them in the evenings. That being said, I do know there is a lot of pressure on kids to have FB (or MSN or IM or whatever) just to be part of the group. A lot of parties and events are being planned that way now and if kids don't have FB, they often don't even get the invitations. So...it's a tough call to completely shut them out from that. However, I think if they know what they are getting into, most kids can be pretty responsible with FB. At 10 years - there's really no reason to. It's not like they can arrange meeting at the mall without getting the parents involved anyway!

PS: So sorry this post turned into an article

What a breath of fresh air. You sound like me. I can tell you it may be a little idealistic, but stick to it if you can!

We are a 2 TV household and have no TV's in bedrooms nor will we. I do not expect our children to have cell phones until they NEED one. I don't see any need until they're driving. We didn't allow video games for a long time. We finally caved on that one. Our oldest is a typical kid, addicted to them. Our youngest has no interest at all and is almost anti-video/computer. We have a family computer and that is it. It's enough. Our ten year old (yes TEN year old) refurbished one of our old broken computers, so we let him put it in his room, but he doesn't have internet on it. He never gets on it.

I myself only have a cell phone for emergencies. It's pay as you go and I have 1000 minutes on it because I never use it! I put the minimum $15 on it every three months. LOL! I do not carry it on me. It pretty much stays in my car, annoying family and friends. I don't feel the need to be available at everyone's beck and call.

I'm definitely old-fashioned, but we walk a fine line between protecting our kids and making them weird. I try to balance the two.

Wow, I can't believe I forgot!

Another potential problem with FB happened to my son. Some kid made up a FB page in my son's name and started "friending" people on my son's behalf. It was not my son's page, but before we knew it, there were dozens of "friends." My daughter and one of my friends played along like they assumed it was really my son's page and they got the originating email address that I was about to pass onto my BIL (who is a detective who works with cybercrime!) when my son and one of his friends figured out who did it, got the password and shut it down. But during that time, my son was really vulnerable. There were a lot of people in the community who just blindly assumed it was his page (the prankster used a picture of my son and they run in sort of the same circle). That kid could have posted bizarre garbage and people might have thought it was from my kid.

The only reason we even knew about this false page was due to our own FB-ability, so as these tweens grow, consider that someone might make a fake page "on their behalf."

lmao, sigh............i also said my child, who is now 14, wouldnt have a cell phone until absolutely necessary.... YEAH, since 7th grade her schedule is insane, i don't know if i'm coming or going taking her to and from school activities. 4 sports she does now. AND her social activity is just as ridiculous. her cell phone died, and she went for 4 weeks without one, just so i could prove a point to her that she isnt ENTITLED to a cell phone. i think it was harder on me than her. for instance, instead of her calling me and saying she was done at practice, and come pick her up, i would go and wait for 45 minutes because practice went over!
also worth mentioning, when i was in school, we didnt NEED the internet. books were all we needed for reference material. NOW, unless you are planning on spending hours at the library to use their internet your going to want to have internet by the 5th grade, my daughter's school started them doing research papers in the 5th grade and they usually require two website references.
just something for everyone to think about because living life internet and cell phone free, is easier said than done

almost forgot, she is a freshman now......things are just getting more crazy by the day. but it is peace of mind knowing that she is just a phone call away.