With parents on Facebook, 'friend' now a relative term

When Matt Florian signed onto his Facebook account recently to check the status of his 400-plus friends, he had a friend request.

[Facebook before my Kid]

I work at a University and opened a facebook site for professional reasons. Later my office open a facebook site too. So when my daughter came to me asked to get involved with MySpace. I opened a myspace site for myself and told her that she had to be my friend so I could at least monitor what she was posting and what others were posting on her site. She is now in her first year of college and is much more involved in facebook now. Many of her friends in MySpace became my friends too, initiated by them. I work in Career Services and we are bombarded with articles about employer hiring practices that utilize social networking sites to check out potiential new hires. It is frustrating to view sites of recent grads who are still seeking employment and have photos of beer-bong parties and provacative activities posted. Parents should be informed and have agreements with their children about Internet etiquette and impromtu viewing of their Internet activities. Start early so that when they go off to college they have this under control. There are far too many other new experiences to deal with when your child is away at school. I do agree that parents should not suprise their children with a friend request. Parents should be discussing the dangers involved with Internet networking sites long before their children leave the nest. Chances are if your child is 14, they are already posting things online!

[Parent]

if you care about your kids, you will monitor what they do online.

[Mom on facebook]

Goodness, we as parents have a life too and maybe we have friends on facebook, I don't care if my adult children know I am on facebook....who cares if they like it or not but if thet did ignore me as a friend( btw, I am on all my famlies facebook friends list) who cares,what a silly thing for kids to worry about. I like facebook and have meet allot of friends there from my past, what a great way to keep in contact with them.

[GA Mom of 5]

If your kids don't want you as a "Friend" on any social network site, then they are probably doing things they don't want you to know about. Maybe a face-to-face relationship needs to improve before they are mature enough to handle on-line interactions, where predators are rampant.

[Guy]

God!! Don't you trust them??? Or lets say, don't you have a good real (not virtual) relationship with your kids to virtually trust them??

[GA Mom of 5]

Guy, with all that's 'out there' for kids now days, you have to be wise, and not be stupid!! Your kids will thank you in the long run!! If they Know that a parent is overseeing the conversations, they will be a bit more careful, less seductive, more honest, etc. It's all good that way!! ;-)