Guide to activities for kids online Social networking

Kids can get in touch with their friends on social networking sites like Facebook

Social media

Social media is part of everyday life these days - from using popular social networks like Facebook, Bebo or MySpace through to uploading photos to Flickr, videos to YouTube or tweeting what's happening on Twitter. 

Usually, people will use one or more of these sites to keep in touch and share with friends they already know in real life or from their past, or to interact with new like-minded networks of people.

Photos, videos, quizzes, games, blogs and other applications can be shared with others in a community atmosphere.

Social networking sites

All social networking sites require members to set up a profile page that details your interests, favourite music and so on. You can change privacy settings to limit who can see your profile information.

The major sites are designed for people aged 13 and above, but because there are no formal security controls, younger children can easily sign up to them. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) provides guidance on ‘friend sites’ for younger children on its Think U Know website.

What are the social networking risks?

• The greatest risk is a loss of privacy, particularly if anyone can view your child’s profile page. It’s best not to reveal too many details – as a guide, age, gender and city are OK to list on your profile, while full name, mobile number, school and email address aren’t – even if they can be viewed only by friends.
• Even if a personal profile is set to private, this may not extend to messages or photos posted to public groups, other people’s profile pages and on third-party applications.
• It’s important to know the level of privacy that needs to be applied to certain content. Facebook lets people allocate different privacy levels to photo albums. On Bebo, you can choose to let only direct friends view albums, and turn off the ability for people to copy images into their own albums for example

For tips on keeping children safe online, read our reports on child internet safety and how parental control software can help you regulate internet usage.

Your child's online footprint

As a parent, you should also think carefully about which information - and in which format - you want to share online about your children, and how public this will be.

A survey conducted by AVG suggested that 81% of all children under the age of two have some kind of online presence - ranging from photos uploaded by parents, to a fully-fledged profile on a social networking site.

Social networks allow you to apply different levels of security to different pieces of content, meaning you can restrict access to photos of your baby or toddler to close friends and family, for example.