How young is too young for social networking?

How young is too young for social networking?

Linda Greenway's son John is a sixth-grader. He started social networking at a very young age. "I was on MySpace when I was about 7. I was living with my dad and it was a way to contact my mom whenever I couldn't talk to her or see her," says 11-year-old John Pittman. Now 11-years-old, John just got a Facebook page too. As for his profile pages, there are house rules. His mom does not allow pictures on his pages. Even his information is unidentifiable. "It's not his real age. It's not his real name. It's not his real town he lives in. Everything is set to private," says Linda. But strangers can send anyone a message on these sites, including your child. If you do not want a stranger to contact your child, on Facebook for example, go into "privacy settings" and change "send me a message" to "only friends." Despite that, law enforcement on the local and federal levels ask parents to consider the risks. "Why would you want to expose your child to any potential danger," says Stacy Arruda from the FBI's Cyber Crimes Division. "By allowing your child to have a social networking page, I don't care what security you have at your house, you've punched a huge hole in the side of your house and you're allowing predators into your home," she says. So how young is too young to this FBI agent? "Under 18," says Arruda. And while the age minimum is up in the air, there's no doubt, if your child is out on the world wide web, you need to pave a path of protection. "A parent who's involved with child on the internet, is a predator's worst nightmare. When you're involved watching, participating, probably not going to get close to your children," says Prosecutor Bill Mason. Linda says, protecting her prized possessions is her only priority. "I'm not here to be their friend. I'll let them play. I'll let them have fun, but you're going to do it mommy's way."