Parenting 'Tweens (9-12) Support Group

i say NO!!!!!!!! my sons friends hae myspace accounts and he wants one but oh well. i have shown him what kinds of things are on these sites and i try to get him to understand that even though he is a very strong minded person, there are still perverts that can and will lure kids in. heck i had a hard time saying yes when he asked me if he could purchace the "LIVE" card for his xbox 360 because it is not supervised and people curse. so we made a deal that he could buy it but he could not use the headset unless he was playing with his friends. my son is 11

You can't join myspace until you are 13 anyway. I would make sure if you do decide to allow it at that time that you have the password and everything and check the comments and messages regularly. I would not hide the fact that you are checking either. You can even do it together.

The sad truth is that even if you say no, the child may sign up for one anyway. I would rather have the ability to keep an eye on the page than to have them create one behind my back.

Also remember, use their e-mail address to check and see if they do not already have an account on there.....

I agree with angel, if you dont allow it, she may just get one anyway! If you do allow it, DO NOT let her down load the chat feature, check her messages at least daily, and hover when she is on there. There is also a feature that lets you limit who can see her profile info. USE IT and make sure that she never give out personal info, even school name or town!

Go with your instincts!! I just don't think it's safe, especially for a ten year old.

I enjoy my MySpace but I am 33 and I don't abuse it. I am firm on not letting my children have an account until they are in their late teens if ever while they are juveniles. My daughter like Club Penguin where kids her age are members and they can chat it up while playing.

MY 12 ALMOST 13YEAR OLD HAD A SITE I HAD NO CLUE ABOUT.SHE STATED SHE WAS 15.TOOK ME 3 DAYS TO GET THE SITE CLOSED.HER SO CALLED FRIENDS,HAD SITES TOO,AND THEY WERE CLAIMING TO BE ANYWHERE BETWEEN FROM 15-18,AND THESE GIRLS ARE SAME AGE AS MINE.I WAS HORRIFIED,AND ANGRY.SHE EVEN WENT ON MY SPACE AT SCHOOL,GOT THREE DAY IN SCHOOL SUSPENSION.I TOLD OTHER PARENTS WHAT THEIR DAUGHTERS WERE DOING,AND THEY DID NOTHING,AND THAT MADE ME MAD ALSO.SO NO I AM NO FAN OF MY SPACE.COM

My son is 11 and I let him have a myspace page this year. All of his friends have one also. Their is a way to set it up to try and limit exposure.

Examples:
They have an option that you can check that only people who are their friends can view their profile.
Also, everything has to be approved before it is posted on their page, like comments, friend requests. pictures.
You can set it up that everything that they recieve, you get email notification.

My son has had his for like 5 months or so now. Everything comes to MY email addy. I set it up that way. If he changes his password,I get notification. If someone wants to be his friend, I get notified and can then check the person out.

Just like anything on the internet, it just goes by how you monitor them. He is aware that I check his myspace page often and he knows that is one of the conditions of it.

Someone mentioned the club penguin site. He used to be a member there but I was over his shoulder the one day and the language and some of the stuff bothered me. Also, pedafiles are more likely to hang out on an all kids site and pretened to be just another child.

That is just my 2 cents on this

my 11 year old step son had an account that we did not know about. He said he was 16 and at the top of his page it said "tell your f***in GF to stop calling me. Real cute.

I don't like my space but, if you set down some very clear ground rules maybe you can make it work. Also I like the idea of having the account set to your email address.

I wouldn't let my 9 year old have a myspace or any social networking page.

A friend of hers at school regularly goes in chat rooms, that I think is wrong too.

I know there will come a time when my two can work round the security features I have in place to stop things like this, but for now they can't.

uhhhh... are you not aware of the age limit on Myspace? I am 39 and don't go to Myspace myself and my kids definitely are not going to know about the site until they have to and they will be the right age before joining. I won't do it for them in my name either.

The site is for wasting brain cells.