Friending Your Kids on Facebook
Here’s a good news article suggesting that parents with kids online should find ways to be a apart of their online world—without stalking them in a sneaky way that blows their trust in you.
“I think parents do have an obligation to find out what their kids are doing online. If they are minors, that is part of being a parent,” said [Julianne] Doctor, who is chairwoman-elect of the Vancouver district parent advisory council. “My daughter is on Facebook, so I joined Facebook so I could see what she is doing. If I see any behaviour that I think is inappropriate or suspect, I’ll tell her.”
Merlyn Horton, executive director of Safe Online Outreach Society, sees an opportunity in “friending” your teen: “As adults we have never had the opportunity to observe youth being youth as we do now when we observe them as friends on Facebook.”
If you’ve been looking for a good reason to start “wasting your time” with Facebook and Twitter, this is as good of one as any. You might never catch up to your kids in terms of social networking savvy, but all of us desperately need wisdom to know how best to participate in these online worlds—especially as followers of Jesus. Even if you don’t “friend” your kids, becoming part of these worlds will help you know what wisdom issues they’re facing every day and in an ever-greater number of relationships.
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