It’s a parenting dilemma for the 21st century – to “friend” or not to “friend”? You know your teenager doesn’t want to be “friends” with their parents on Facebook. It’s like asking a teenager if they really want their parents hanging around a party with their friends – you know what the answer will be. That doesn’t mean, however, that smart parents should allow their kids to be on Facebook without supervision.
In fact, according to a new Nielsen survey more than 70% of parents are friends with their kids on Facebook. In at least 41% of households, it’s not an optional arrangement – kids are required to be friends with their parents if they want to be on the social networking site. In many cases parents also have declared veto power on who their kids can “friend” since more than half of the teens who participated in the survey admitted to not knowing at least some of their Facebook friends in person.
“Friending friends is certainly a way to populate your list quickly,” Regina Lewis, a consumer adviser with AOL, told Reuters.
“That is why the number of mutual friends is one of those really important factors in figuring out who may be a outlier,” she added.
So, if it’s just as important to keep an eye on your kids on Facebook as it would be to keep an eye on a high school rager being thrown in your basement, how do you keep your kids safe without stepping on their developing independence?
Your kids might have the answer – nearly half of those surveyed said that they would rather be friends with their parents privately, so that their parents could see what was happening but could not comment on their wall. That way you can observe, but your teen can be secure in the knowledge that you can’t actively embarrass them.
