Facebook Profiles for Kids: What Are the Potential Dangers?

"You're baby is so cute." "Thank you! I think I want to give her a Facebook page." This was something I heard of one young mother speaking of her 10 month old daughter. More and more, parents, particularly young mothers, are setting up Facebook profiles for their kids. The thing is, many of them are setting up these Facebook profiles for kids that are not even old enough to comprehend what Facebook is. What's the reason behind this? Is it just a fad? Is it just a phase? What would be the benefits of setting up a Facebook profile for a 2-year old? Surely they wouldn't be able to monitor their own Facebook page, as this will be done by the parent. However, for what purpose would doing something like this serve. On so many levels many problematic issues can be found with setting up Facebook profiles for kids, but first let's try to see if there are any positive outlooks.

A child star may have potential use for an Internet profile like a Facebook page, to display their talents and acquire notoriety from potential entertainment entities, but what if we are just speaking of the average kid? Especially one that is not even old enough to read and write yet? Facebook is a social networking site designed to reunite friends and develop new ones, along with side perks such as being a media outlet for businesses and entertainers without overhead costs from traditional marketing and advertisement companies. Now when it comes to kids at young ages where a Facebook page holds no value to them, what are any key benefits to establishing a Facebook profile for them. Some may say: "I want everybody to see my beautiful baby. she can have her own set of little friends." "My baby needs their own Facebook profile." These are some of the statements given by engaging mothers, but with so many vulnerabilities in the world, particularly ones from Internet use, is this such a wise idea to give them their own Facebook profile? Perhaps this is making more of a statement like; "Look at my child! Come and take them!" Even with making a Facebook profile private, there are still some basic demographic information that is displayed to the average viewer. This is all the arsenal a potential kidnapper may need to perform their kidnapping acts.

As far as finding out what's wrong with setting up Facebook profiles for kids, there is a long list of reasons. For one, setting up Facebook profiles for kids is doing nothing but making it easier for criminals like kidnappers, rapist and child molesters to profile your child and potentially take action. As we want to protect our children as parents, the question is, would setting up Facebook profiles for kids be such a wise decision to make? It is enough of an issue that parental guidance is needed to monitor our older children and their Internet usage, mainly on sites that engages them in things like chatting, but to exploit them on a social networking site with their own Facebook page which is designed for all to see, presents even more of a threat that the parents would be fully responsible for if they are the one's setting up these Facebook profiles for kids. Criminals like kidnappers could never have it so easy if parents are helping them in an indirect manner with their criminal acts by putting their children up for display. Perhaps, simply taking them directly to the kidnapper's house and dropping them off would be better if this is the desire of parents. Of course this is not the case, so these are issues that should be thought of and carefully considered when engaging in such activities as setting up Facebook profiles for kids.

More along the lines of gloating, boasting and showing off is the reason why some parents would consciously set up Facebook profiles for kids of their own. This can also be looked upon as being extremely tacky in the eyesight of others, especially potential employers whom are being found to search through potential employee profiles for a sense of their character. One whom sees a list of friends of a person and noticing that they have their young child on the site as a friend can seem distasteful and deter professionals. There are also constant changes made to the way Facebook displays information about its users, with one of them being the displaying of their telephone number if given upon initial set-up of a Facebook profile. Many users have been found to be unaware of this and if they are sharing such information on their children's site or even their own, unwanted calls may occur or even more of a danger may be a visit from that criminal who is preying on you or your child through the use of such demographic information.

The best solution at preventing any of these potential dangers may seem to be keeping things simple. A privacy about your family should be top priority and with that comes things like, keeping kids away from media outlets that can cause more harm than good, especially for those little ones who have no control of these outlets and look toward us as parents for guidance and protection. Don't give your children away as prey to the vultures in society.