What's an Appropriate Age for a Child to Get Their Own Facebook Page?

by SodaHead Living Posted 2012/03/02 19:00:00

Related Topics: Facebook, Lifestyle, Addiction, Infographic, Divorce, School, Opinion, State, Digital, Internet, Lawyer

2,643 votes
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	7 - 9 years old	139 votes	5%
	10 - 12 years old	386 votes	15%
	13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)	895 votes	34%
	14 - 17 years old	753 votes	28%
	18 years old and above	470 votes	18%

We've talked about Facebook leading to break-ups (divorce lawyers say it does), we've talked about the new Facebook timeline (most people don't like the updated look), heck...we've even talked about how the majority of you feel addicted to the Internet (61 percent and counting.) But now it's time to talk about Facebook... and age appropriateness.

With ever-evolving features and layouts, Facebook continues to have a big impact on how people interact in the digital world they've created for themselves -- but how soon is too soon? Once you open a Facebook account, it's official: you've started the process of leaving a digital footprint in the world -- for anyone to discover. Is that something a kid in elementary school is ready for? Or do you think Facebook is more of a harmless pastime for someone of any age group to enjoy? That's for you to decide. What do you think is an appropriate age for someone to get a Facebook account?

+62

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Awwmandawashere 2012/03/02 19:37:37 (edited)

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

+16
Parents shouldn't let their children have Facebooks until they are old enough. My mom made me wait until I was old enough to make one but you see on facebook 7 year olds that's a perfect way for a pedophile to get his hands on your children. They need to be mature enough to understand the dangers that are on the internet. I actually didn't make one until I was a Freshmen in high school. I mean Facebook isn't all that great to begin with why do we need little children on social media sites?
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More polls by SodaHead Living

naenae 6 days ago

7 - 9 years old

all my friends have one but i cant people lie so i dont know what u going to do facebook

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mia 2012/08/16 01:15:37

18 years old and above

alice dockery

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mia to mia 2012/08/16 01:24:09

+3
hi wants up

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Bob 2012/06/19 04:22:08

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

+1
13 is the minimum age aet by the site. MOST 13 year olds tend to know better than to give out personal info to people unknown. Im 14 but my super protective mom still wont let me even though its the only way i could communicate with friends that dont have phones but do have facebooks. I know this isnt really relative but I got a cell phone at the age of 12 after begging my mom to get ne one so i could talk and text friends durring the summer ir ones i met at camp

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kaylee 2012/06/07 13:28:54

14 - 17 years old

i honestly dont think kids should be getting facebook until they are like an adult. facebook has thinghs on there that most kids dnt need to see. my sister has one and shes 13! her and her friend got in a fight and spreaded rumors through fb then at her school! so, yes in my vote, 17-29 years of age. when kids post pics of themselves online, it becomes big trouble because a kidnapper or sombody is like a monster then one day hes gonna send her a threat note and he/she is going to be scared out of their minds.

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DoReMiRocker 2012/04/21 21:17:27

10 - 12 years old

I'm 12 years old and I made my Facebook account when I was 11 and my YouTube when I was 9 even though this is about Facebook. I have good grammar and I know I'm mature enough to handle pedophiles and killers. I think it's okay if they are 11-12 because that's my honest opinion. :)

~ DoReMiRocker on YouTube and Victoria Rose Lehman on Facebook

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Harold 2012/04/10 21:29:14

18 years old and above

+1
There are still those creepers out there searching for children.

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Angela24 2012/04/08 18:32:19

18 years old and above

+1
i think it's 18 because some of the things in facebook are not really good for childrens even though they didn't know it they're gonna find it because childrens love exploring

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mia to Angela24 2012/08/16 01:33:37

+1
do you want to bo my bff

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Sayer Stewart 2012/04/08 16:28:31

7 - 9 years old

+1
I don't think there should be a minimum age.

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tywon.smith 2012/04/02 17:32:19

14 - 17 years old

+2
Who voted for the 7-9 year olds? the 7-9 year olds?

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ali100heart 2012/04/02 04:55:35

10 - 12 years old

+1
im 12 years old and thinnk that iam old enough and mature enough to get one all my friends have one at school and parents should think of it as another way as us friends communicating with eachother.

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♥K14 2012/04/01 21:47:55

7 - 9 years old

+1
Younger than that...

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Christina Estabrooks 2012/03/27 01:26:22

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

+1
if the kids want it just to play games let them go on mommy or daddys facebook for alittle bit to play. i know my kid aint getting one till atleast 12- 13 years when their mature or somewhat mature.

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Margaret Jacobson 2012/03/23 20:31:32

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

+1
MOST THAT CAN BE TAUGHT HOW TO ANSWER QUESTIOPNS, INTERACT WITH OTHERS APPROPIATELY.........HOPEFULLY THEY CAN SPELL ALL THE WORDS........I HOPE!!! USE REASONABLY GOOD JUDGEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!

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GLaDOS 2012/03/23 05:34:40

18 years old and above

My daughter MAY be allowed to have one when she's 13, but I will monitor it like nothing else. I signed both of my daughters up for deviantART accounts, and made sure that pictures marked mature were blocked. I don't mind them going on there and going through pictures to "favorite" what they like, or making friends who are artists, but those are artists, and it's a much smaller community than Facebook, and they all have a common interest.

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Hannah Turney 2012/03/23 01:37:50

10 - 12 years old

+1
all my friends have one and i think it is cool.

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Lucius Archangel 2012/03/22 10:23:09

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

I would normally say that a certain age shouldnt b forced on users, i would go with what MySpace had, u dont have to be a certain age to sign up HOWEVER a certain age will b forced to have a private profile til the user reaches the appropriate age for choosing his or her private settings, for safety reasons though. If ur under 14 then ur profile will be private to the public no matter what but once u hit 14 or 15 whatver, u will b given the right 2 choose who and who can see what and what on ur page. And i would also say any1 can sign up as long as they know how to use the site and internet, singing the usual "i agree to terms policy", u woudnt want a dumb person posting personal things or info by "accident" in public without being aware of other users vewing it. And i say this because i want 2 be fair for every1 and yet SAFE. But in the very end, its up to each individuals parents to decide if their young 11 or 13 year old can have an account.

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MadamAqua2100 2012/03/22 10:15:38

14 - 17 years old

In a way in most places people are allowed to drive at 16 years, but not allowed to drink until they are 21. I was 17 when I signed up to facebook, but I didn't start using it until 3 months later when I was babysitting. So children should not sign up to facebook until they are 14 or so years of age

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TortoiseWrath 2012/03/21 14:37:34

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

+2
I think that there should be no set minimum age; if parents are too stupid to teach their children not to tell strangers where they live, and moderate their Internet when they're too young to understand that (USUALLY until around 13 years old, though it can vary by person anywhere from 7 to 18), that should be their problem.

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Lucius ... to Tortois... 2012/03/22 10:28:22

Well said mate. And also if i may add, thats y i think facebook should enforce private profiles on users under the age of 14 or 13 no matter what, that way they can still have their account, (even if sum parents are dumb to let them depending on their knowledge of the internet etc.), and yet, pedophiles and other unfriendly users wont b able to gain any information from the young users. The kids are safe, every1 is happy now.

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Tortois... to Lucius ... 2012/03/31 04:11:48

Or you could just not have Facebook in the first place, and, like, do your math homework instead...

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Lucius ... to Tortois... 2012/03/31 10:45:10

+1
then that would b for sum1 that doesnt want 1 in the 1st place then.

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Tortois... to Lucius ... 2012/05/27 22:47:20

Or your English homework...

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Lucius ... to Tortois... 2012/05/28 10:14:51 (edited)

when i didnt know how to do sumthin in my english homework, id log on to facebook and ask sum1 for help...haha

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Tsigg 2012/03/19 23:10:07

18 years old and above

not as long as im responsible for them. im 15 years old and my parents let me have a FB when i was 12. i got rid of it a year ago because facebook is DANGEROUS. i believe it is another vehicle for the government to keep tabs on everyone at all times. there are more people on facebook now than there were people on the planet a century ago, and as long as people continue to support it, we will become more and more dependent on it, and pretty soon people like me will be forced to get one in order to do ANYTHING, much like telephones have become. its not crazy to say that its possible that mark zuckerburg is just a paid faceplate of a bigger project that was completely mandated by the government.

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Nick Manhas 2012/03/19 21:02:14

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

Children under the age of 13 are NOT mature enough to handle facebook

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Tortois... to Nick Ma... 2012/03/21 14:39:01

+2
In other words: "on their thirteenth birthday, everybody becomes magically enlightened to not tell people where they live or download suspicious files or do other stupid things." No. It doesn't work like that.

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Scoobe 2012/03/18 21:14:02

14 - 17 years old

+1
I have a very simplistic reason for choosing this answer. In most states 16 is the age at which a person can drive, under certain conditions, free of a chaperone. 18 is the age at which, in all states you are legally allowed to volunteer to go to war. At 21 you are legally allowed to drink in most states. IMHO 15 would be a good age.

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Natluerev 2012/03/17 14:29:56

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

It's Facebook's website and Facebook's standard. If a person is underage on Facebook, their profile should be deleted as soon as someone finds out.

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Tortois... to Natluerev 2012/03/21 14:44:05

It's not Facebook's standard, it's the government's standard. Facebook doesn't want to have to deal with COPPA forms, so they set the minimum at 13, just like most other websites.

Did you know that it's not legally possible to get your own email address unless you're 13? You need to be 13 to get a corporate email address, buy a domain name and hosting, get Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Live Mail, or any other mail account... In fact, in the seventh grade, my teacher instructed us to lie about our age on two different websites in order to use them in the curriculum.

COPPA, as a policy, is ridiculous - it prevents, say, 11-12-year-olds from being exposed legally to anything that actually matters in the world, like how to use email, use a credit card responsibly (in school, we were simply taught that they were evil and had no place in the world and that everybody should always write checks, and that was two years ago)...

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Reach130 2012/03/17 13:07:39

13 years old (Facebook's minimum age)

That's when I got mine...
If your parents let you get one at age 7, I think that's VERY bad parenting!!!
I think 11 or 12 is okay, but any younger I think would be irresponsible...

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Reach130 to Reach130 2012/03/17 13:16:06

And I'm 13, I stay safe on the internet (never give out my full name, post any public pictures, add strangers, give out personal details, keep my profile private) I only ever add people I know and stuff too.

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Tortois... to Reach130 2012/03/21 14:39:55

+1
Well, I certainly did that when I was 8 or so. It's not like all children mature at the same rate.

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Zoey Walker 2012/03/17 03:02:37

14 - 17 years old

Im just sayin someone could get hurt...

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Teh MIghty Pyro 2012/03/16 21:44:43

10 - 12 years old

+1
age is nothing but a number. i believe its ok as long as you're mature about it and don't go around making an ass of yourself. the internet has enough of those

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DoReMiR... to Teh MIg... 2012/04/21 21:21:26

I agree with you. ^-^

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MICHELE 2012/03/16 20:04:44

14 - 17 years old

I believe it all boils down to responsibility for both parents and child. The reason I say parents is because some parents just don't give a %#%% or care to know what there child is up to on the Internet and in their daily life, until there is a rude awakening of some sort and why wait until then? Us as parents have a responsibility to protect our children and know what they are in to who they associate with etc. some children will get angry and upset feeling as if they have no privacy, but that is alright they'll get over it then you know your doing your job. I'd rather have my child hate me for awhile than to lose them to forever! In this society parents must be the HUNTERS and never let their guards down. Predators come in every shape and form they will use any means necessary to get close to their prey and that's were we as parents (HUNTERS) aim for our target...<<<@>>>> BULLS EYE!! before the thought even crosses their filthy mind. This is why we must be involved with our children there is nothing you should not know. It will be easier to see the signs that are often so missed. We need to have the upper hand always!!!

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Truth in Question 2012/03/16 05:58:59

14 - 17 years old

Good parenting (which we as a society have seen time after time that trusting this solely NEVER works) paired with the restrictions to allow only outbound invites and messages should allow the age of 14 or 15 to be a fair age in my opinion.

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Sagy Rockjass 2012/03/15 19:53:46

10 - 12 years old

+2
They do it... as imitation...and soon they find the interest when some of their friends have facebooks too. I don't think this could be bad... with a correct supervision

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