DS is 13 and has his own a/c, but i monitor it (i know the password), we often go on it tog. I cannot believe what some of the kids are writing on there and alot of them are even younger and "in a relationship" with such and such. Luckily , he is not into girls - yet.
I know a few people who have 2 facebook profiles, 1 for normal use and one for family so they can keep track of teenage kids/let their parents still believe they are sweet and innocent. Perhaps that could work for you?
To answer your question: Until recently I had my 15yo DD on my friends list and she had me on hers. Then we asked her to deactivate her account because it was causing no end of problems. But yes she was able to see all my status and photos but i lead a pretty tame life i agree with rouge that my child's safety is more important than my own privacy too.
Just one thing to note though: it seems that once your child has set up a FB account then you can't really deactivate it It seems that our DD has managed to over ride the schools firewall against FB by using a proxy site and she has simply been able to reactivate it. I sometimes wish she had never opened up an account in the first place. FB was the scene for so much negative and secretive behaviours BUT it also allowed DH and i to gain some insight... double edged sword.
Delay until 13 and then make sure he has you as a full access 'friend'.... ETA: and try to make sure he doesn't amass 500 friends...
My BIL has a fb account...he is 10! BUT, it is super locked down, very private, and he never updates a status, or even has any pictures. He uses it to play games and communicate with his family overseas.
My DS1 & DD1 both have facebook accounts.
My DD1 lied about her age for it and I was okay with that as it was her way of keeping in touch with friends from where we used to live.
I monitor everything to do with my kids facebook accounts. Both of my kids have me & DH as friends. I don't keep anything from them... if I am venting about them they will see it. If something is said on there that they don't want to see, they don't really have to look.
I have my kids passwords to FB & email. I monitor who they add also. I often do a friend cull for them as sometimes it seems that they have excessive amounts of 'friends' whom they never chat to. I also have a secret facebook account that I use to check on the privacy settings each time facebook decides to change something.
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i agree with rouge that my child's safety is more important than my own privacy too.
It seems that our DD has managed to over ride the schools firewall against FB by using a proxy site and she has simply been able to reactivate it. I sometimes wish she had never opened up an account in the first place. FB was the scene for so much negative and secretive behaviours BUT it also allowed DH and i to gain some insight... double edged sword.
My BIL has a fb account...he is 10! BUT, it is super locked down, very private, and he never updates a status, or even has any pictures. He uses it to play games and communicate with his family overseas.
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