Comments on: When Dad wants to be your Facebook friend

By: gina

gina — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:44:12 +0000

And what happens when your kid runs off with an adult?

I never told him not to be friends with people, I never told him not to say or do certain things. But I did keep my eye on him, and I knew what he was doing. So, if I saw pictures of kids that hung out at our house drinking or smoking weed, we would sit down and talk about it.

14 and 15 year olds shouldn’t be totally trusted. Its our responsibility to watch them, to be “Big Brother”. Then it’s our job to ease up on them when they can prove they know what they are doing.

By: Laurens

Laurens — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:39:55 +0000

I’m sorry, but that is just plain ridiculous. Yes, it’s up to the parents to educate their kids about the (future) “dangers” of posting just about anything on profile pages, but that doesn’t mean you have to watch their every move imho.

What happened to relationships based on trust (even if your kids are still underage)? Being overprotective (read: playing Big Brother) won’t really help…

By: gina

gina — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:35:55 +0000

My son was not allowed to be on myspace unless I was his friend. When his friends had pics of stuff that high school kids shouldn’t be doing, and I asked him about it, he threatened to un-friend me. I told him if he un-friended me he would not be able to be on the Internet anymore. He called me the worst friend ever. I reminded him I wasn’t his friend, I am his mom.

Now he’s in college, and we are friends on Facebook. I remind him now when he gets tagged in pics that employers are going to look him up on Facebook. I think he is starting to listen to me about that.

I think parents are crazy if they don’t make it a rule that their kids have to friend them (if they are underage).

By: Chip

Chip — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:23:00 +0000

Heh, my son friended me first!

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:34:53 +0000

My Mom has been a friend on facebook and myspace for sometime now and I find it quite common amongst my other friends. I’m 24 so perhaps that has something to do with it but I don’t see the issue with associating with your parents in a social way. Heck, everyone was young once, why not treat all age groups equally. I through parties where my parents and their friends are welcome too and it makes everything way more fun. Older people have the best booze, best stereos and the best food.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:45:47 +0000

I totally friended my mom on GigPark.com, which is arguably a social network site, though I suppose the context is somewhat different. Facebook's social group is that of hanging out with friends, planning events, tagging party photos... it's like having your parent with you at a house party, only virtually. Probably not the best fit. GigPark, a social network for getting recommendations, is an excellent place to friend your parents, because one normally trusts their advice (having a teenager ask their own parents for advice over a website is probably a matter of concern though). Similarly, I think my mom would make an excellent Digg/Reddit/StumbleUpon friend, as I'm sure she'd vote up my every submission :)