The answer is yes. Sort of.
Our seven-year-old came home from school recently and told us he had to set up his online profile. Come again?…we thought.
Was he signing up for Facebook? #whattheheck….?!
Well it wasn’t Facebook, thankfully. It was Edmodo, an online program his class was starting to use as a means of communicating.
At first, I must admit, I was skeptical about this new tool. It’s one thing for him to mess around with some apps on the iPad, or look up a video on YouTube, but I wasn’t prepared for social networking.
Although, after helping him set up his account, I was sold on it. The teachers update homework assignments, there’s a calendar that tracks special events, and you can even ask the teachers questions directly. I like it.
Gone (or at least going) are the days of 3 lb agendas kids lug home each night. Technology is changing the way we do business, so this is a great first step to getting kids familiar with the web.
Our son is a pretty active kid and has never been too into video games or surfing the web, but he is leaning that way.
This is the best gateway to going online. I am sure there are kids out there his age with Facebook accounts. This is at least education focused. But as much time as I might agonize over my profile shot on Facebook, he spends time tweaking his “avatar” giving him a different shade of baseball cap or a gold chain.
Of course he is growing up – gone are the hugs and kisses when we drop him off, replaced by fist bumps and high fives. But now he runs to a computer in his class instead of the action figures.
I know this is a sign of the times. When we were kids, computers were just getting to high schools, not elementary school classrooms. Still, we worry.
Kids on his baseball team, kids no older than 9, have iPhones (not iPods or iPads – iPHONES!) and text each other. How young is too young?
I’m sure the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree on this one. We’re guilty as charged when it comes to being ‘plugged in’. Monkey see, monkey do, I suppose.
Are your kids online? What are your thoughts? How do you protect them?
6 Responses to Are seven-year-olds social networking these days?
Great post Soulla! I think you pose a question that all us FB & TWITTER junkies wonder.. When should we allow our kids to “plug in”. My kids see me on my BB all the time and grab it to play on it, type on it and see what I am so engaged in.. I even found my 8 year old on my twitter account searching Justin Bieber. She wanted to get her own account so that she could “write” well “stalk” him on her own.. I swiftly said NO to that request.
But as she gets a bit older I start to wonder when should she be allowed to sign on to these accounts. Part of me feels like protecting her from it as long as I can. Don’t get me wrong she has an iPod and emails from it, downloads apps and goes on youtube but Social Networking just seems too scary for right now..
I am thinking 12 or 13 feels like the right age…Would love to hear what everyone else thinks..
Oh Kath, she learned her stalking techniques from mother dearest *cough* Scott Speedman *cough*.
Ours doesn’t have email or anything yet. I have NO clue what the appropriate age is for that. I just feel like they’re still a little too young. But I guess times are a changing!
Yes I admit she learned from the best! She got a laptop when she was 5 and is really great on the computer. Never abuses youtube etc so I figured email was a nice way for her to communicate with family & the odd friend who also had email. I LOVE it when am I on a work trip and she emails me – kids really do send the sweetest emails…
I think I will hold off on the FB & Twitter pages until she really starts bugging for it. I heard there is a new social media forum that just started for kids…
I remember as kid asking my mom some random question (why is the sky blue?) and whenever she didnt’ know the answer we wrote it on our “library list” and we on our (usually) weekly trips to the library we’d look it up. My son asks me things and I just look at him and go “alright, lets google it!” He’s 6yrs old and even my 4yr old daughter wants me to google stuff for her. We have a rule they can’t google and youtube by themselves, they looove facebook too. I have lots of family that lives 6hrs away and the fact that my kids can sent them messages and updates and share pictures is something that I will hold dear. My brother also just went to college a day and a half drive away from us and my kids are extrememly close and miss him endlessly. Because of facebook they can email him a couple times a day and tell them everything that is going on in their world and they can see pictures and read his emails of how he is doing (granted i check his pictures first, I mean he is in college!!) I grew up with a huge close family until we had to move and while I don’t have extended family here they can still talk to our family and see pictures of my cousin and his kids who live in Thailand. As long as we keep an eye on our kids the computer can be a truely amazing tool for them
I was very interested to read this post, being a co-founder of Ohanarama, a PTPA winner this year. We built Ohanarama specifically for families of elementary aged children so they can be safe, have fun, learn and connect with family with the best of social networking and social gaming techniques. If you want to learn more about us, check out our PTPA page at http://www.ptpamedia.com/Product-page?PID=1485. Our latest family contest winner learned about us on the PTPA site!
My 3 yr old has a favorites folder. As long as Internet explorer is open she can get to some educational games. She loves learning on it. Social network sites can wait til shes in school.