The Facebook friend request I received from my sister seemed normal and innocent. One look at her profile page revealed signs of something strange. She had only 22 friends, 11 tagged photos and several wall posts still awaiting a response. I saw all of this thanks to her pathetically low privacy settings. Other parts of her profile matched up perfectly with a typical high school girl. Her favorite musical artists were Dave Matthew’s Band and Lady Gaga, and her favorite movies included Mean Girls and 13 Going On 30. Finally, I noticed the strange thing about her profile.
She’s eight years old.
I was shocked and alarmed. I immediately ran to tell my mother (who once grounded me for getting a Myspace account without telling her) the news, but her face showed no surprise as I tattled on my sister. In fact, my mom was in on it. None of my sister’s friend requests could be accepted without my mother’s approval, and she kept an eye on the whole thing through her own page. I’m sure she views Facebook like a box of Kix’s cereal: Kid tested, mother approved.
A pre-teen joining Facebook is nothing new. In eighth grade when Myspace still stood atop social networking, many of my classmates were beginning to join Facebook, and many a middle schooler can be found on the site today. Not too many eight year olds though (atleast I hope not), and for good reason. Facebook pages expose children to online predators, but the greatest danger my sister faces on Facebook comes from her friends. An eight year olds writing and reading is still in its developmental stages, and the lols and urs of Facebook could have a greater impact on her than a normal user. She just doesn’t need one. Her circle of friends numbers two to three and has a one block diameter, and she doesn’t have a schedule to manage or any groups to communicate with. Practical reasons aside, I also don’t need any (more) statuses about Barbie dolls or Hannah Montana clogging my news feed. Even though she is my sister, I felt perfectly alright clicking the decline button on her friend request.
