Five Reasons Why My Children Won't be on Facebook Until 16+

Hey Y'all,

I haven't done a Five reasons why post in forever. Today's post is prompted by an article I read about yet another young person who took their life because of cyber bulling.

5 Reasons Why My Children Won't be on Facebook

 (or any other social media site) Until 16+

I of course searched the net for legal reasons etc and found a great article on Your Sphere For Parents which lists Three Good Reasons Why Your Child Shouldn't Be on Facebook, which are privacy, inappropriate content, and COPPA which is an Internet privacy law called The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. COPPA, was put in place for a reason: to protect the personal information of children online. I work in advertising and clients were often upset that they couldn't target 13 year old girls for products they were trying to market to children. It's DANGEROUS to have young children on line point blank PERIOD!

Here are MrsDeveter's 5 reasons why my children won't be on Facebook (or any other social media site) are as follows.

1. Sexual Predators - Men and women are still trolling the internet looking for willing participants to fulfill their sexual desires. They are seeking out unassuming young people who are clueless about their last history test so forget about someone making sexual advances on them. A 13 year old girl should NOT be posting pictures of herself in a bikini in the dressing room of Abercrombie and Fitch! I don't care if you are standing right there as she snaps the shot it just shouldn't be done. Pedophiles are real! They are abusing our children and many are causing parents like this mother to almost kill them. My children will not be put in a position where they are unsafe. So nope they won't be on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or the like for a very long time.
2. Cyber Bulling - It shouldn't be but it's REAL and most times it begins with a photo. Camera phones in my opinion are the WORST and best thing that ever happened to mobile devices. I am a picture taker. I find myself snapping shots on average five to six times a day, forget about if we are on an outing it's way more. Children however can find themselves in bad situations, post a picture of someone without their knowledge and shed a negative light on them. A young girl made a bad decision to participate in a end of summer party, got drunk, passed out and boys took advantage of her sexually. Pictures were posted to Facebook and the young woman took her life. Now there is a family without a child and some more parents who children have been charged with a crime. Don't get me wrong the girl could have still gone to the party, gotten drunk and been photographed without the use of social media. The fact is social media WAS used and her life was put on display for all to see. She felt degraded for something she couldn't even remember and ended her life because of the shame. 
3. Display of Poor Parenting - We've all seen the video of the dad betting his daughters for posting videos of themselves 'twerking' he wasn't showing great parenting skills for recording himself beating his children and posting it to the internet ... that was just dumb. I'm from the old school and was spanked a time or two in my life but my mother was very diplomatic and never left a bruise on my skin. Recording yourself disciplining your children is just DUMB. Now this father has been charged with child endangerment. Recently I came across a video of a mother yelling at her daughter about talking to guys on Facebook (the daughter says another girl has her password and is posting things on her timeline) the mother is pissed to say the lease but it making her lack of parenting skills evident (explicit language) check out the video here if you dear. I refuse to put my self in a position where I'm made to look incompetent as a parent.... many of our children's choices are a reflection of us. 
4. T.M.I. - To Much Information "What's On Your Mind" is what Facebook asks in your status update... What's on my mind is often none of anybody's business... some folks have gotten fired from jobs, ruined relationships etc because they listed what was on their mind. To much information can often be inappropriate and could cause a child to be put in danger. Everybody knows you shouldn't post that your entire family is going out of town on vacation to Hawaii. That leaves you open for theft but does a 13 year old want to keep their dream vacation to themselves? of course not. When Foursquare first came out and I started receiving alerts from friends it freaked me out. Why would I want to know that you are at Pathmark at 8:25 am? Why did you check in there? What if I were a stalking trolling your page and came after you? Yes I think it's cool to check into cultural events, great restaurants etc. but why check in when you get home? That's just TMI and kids tend to share to much information as it is... social media causes them to make silly decisions that again has the ability to put them in danger! And furthermore who needs to know what you ate for breakfast lunch and dinner (i do share sometimes) but really? Not important.
5. Privacy - This isn't what you may think... I'm not talking about the kids privacy I'm talking about mine. I don't want or need my children to be privy to what I'm doing online. Not that I'm putting anything crazy out there but Facebook has been a place where I can mommy boast about my babies, and have adult conversations. If my children are one they may find out things they don't need to know. When they are a little older they might understand adult conversations, so until then. No social media for the 3 Little Browns!

Welp what do you think? Is social media in your child(rens) future?

Until next time...

MUAH!