<p>Now that my D is going to bs - I am wondering how Facebook accounts are handled. She still needs to decide which school to attend - but I wondered if anyone knew about particular rules concerning Facebook at any of the boarding schools? Has anyone heard of problems - privacy etc. concerning Facebook accounts and web pages at bs?</p>
<p>Check school policies - at least one that I read says you can NOT sign up for any social networking sites using your school email address.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if andover, St. Andrew's in DE, or Taft allow it?</p>
<p>It's likely in their student handbook.</p>
<p>Can we add Lawrenceville and Episopal to that list? I am checking the school sites to see if I can find anything though.</p>
<p>SPS allows it
Taft allows it
Deerfield allows it
Hotchkiss allows it
Choate allows it
Exeter allows it</p>
<p>I don't know about any of the others, but it seems like most have no problem with it</p>
<p>As a fellow parent, I am curious as what the exact concern is?
At my D's school, pretty much every student has one and they are actively used.</p>
<p>I don't know if the school allows it or not, but I just did a search and there are kids who have facebook accounts in the Lawrenceville, Andover, Taft, and Episcopal networks. I didn't find any kids signed up under St. Andrew's in DE. </p>
<p>The same thing at my daughter's school, Creative. Everyone has a facebook account.</p>
<p>My D does not have one now and I have read a few things about privacy concerns. Until recently you could not completely delete the account - even if you wanted to - and I know places like the Univ of New Mexico had at one time banned access for privacy/safety issues. If these students put things on the site innocently - such as personal information - I would suspect it could cause issues in regards to violation of privacy or safety.</p>
<p>My child didn't have an account either before going off to BS but I guess I am of the opinion that if I trust her to go off to school at the age of 14, I need to trust her decision and discretion on this as well. I know from a social aspect, she felt it was important to have an account given the widespread use at her school. We continue to have periodic converasations about appropriate content, privacy settings, etc. I think if one is cautious, there are enough privacy settings to keep you safe. I know some parents who "friend" their kids so they can see the content on their child's page -that my daughter would never allow! :) I know a few kids who are forbidden to have them - some do anyway.</p>
<p>Although the school will try to police internet usage, I don't expect them to play big brother. I also feel that if I had concerns about my child's maturity level and ability to handle this issue, there are a lot bigger problems they could get into living "on their own". </p>
<p>I am not saying you are wrong to be concerned. I had similar concerns at first so am just sharing the thought process I went through myself.</p>
<p>At SG it was completly blocked at school, but then the student council and prefects put together a proposal to get it open on the weekends. the students won and we have it from 12 noon saturday (1 hour after classes are out) to 6 on sunday.</p>
<p>To clarify, the kids at the school I know about can have a facebook account, they just can't use their SCHOOL EMAIL address to sign up for it.<br>
It's a technology violation if they do. I would simply suggest checking the technolgoy rules before signing up with your school address.</p>
<p>I think there always needs to be a concern about publishing personal information on any website, including CC. Facebook has recently upgraded their privacy controls, yet a guy was able to hack into Paris Hilton's account and view her personal photos. </p>
<p>As parents, we need to educate our children on internet safety--what to look out for, what to share, and what to avoid. Most of the kids do just use Facebook and MySpace as a means to communicate with their friends. </p>
<p>Years ago, when my 4 daughters originally asked to set up a myspace and / or facebook account, I let them, but created my own account and had them accept me as a "friend." It allowed me to see their profile page. Some of them balked and said it was an invasion of privacy, but as I explained to them, if strangers can see it, it isn't private. If I went on their account, I never commented about anything that was on their profile (things they wrote about themselves or comments they received from friends.) I didn't want them to think "Big Brother" was watching--just that I was concerned about their safety. Only once did I have an issue: one of my daughter's had a photo of herself that I thought was too risque. I mentioned it to her and she agreed and deleted it. </p>
<p>Now that one daughter is at boarding school, I do go on her facebook profile. I check out the latest photos she's added--it makes me happy to see her smiling with all her new friends :)</p>
<p>We too are added as my son's "friends." One time a friend wrote on his wall something like "OMG, your parents have facebook...I'll have to talk to you in school tomorrow then..."<br>
And you know what - that's fine. If the kids don't want us reading it, then it's probably not a good idea for it to be on facebook in the first place.<br>
We are like you jenny, just observe for safety and stupidity.</p>
<p>That sounds like the right approach. I need to set up an account so that I can learn more about it and I certainly would like to do the 'friends' things so I can look occasionally. I can imagine seeing the pictures will make me smile as well. I don't think this is just an issue of maturity. I think that with the boom of the internet - new issues of privacy and safety are coming up everyday. Not to mention how Universities and employers are now viewing the sites to get a feel for potential candidates.</p>
<p>exactly mddenise. We explain you never **really **know who will see your profile. We also keep an "eye" on a couple of our friends kids. One girl was posting pics of her that made her look several years older than she is AND she lied about her age (and to her parents) and was "talking" much older than she is. That really could have created a problem for her - she's beautiful but only 12 and looking 16 or so.</p>
<p>My oldest has a facebook account -- and it seems to be the primary vehicle for social contacts for older teens/young 20s. He keeps in contact with people from college classes, summer programs, school and more.</p>
<p>We did have a long discussion about posting appropriate information and photos and not to reveal too much personal info (although, if your child goes to a BS and that is on the facebook -- they already know the kid's address).</p>
<p>My son prefers Facebook, since it is not open to the public (or something like that) and he has to accept friends in order for them to see his profile. It gives him more control.</p>
<p>Facebook is designed so that by designating certain settings, no one can view your page unless you permission them. I'm not saying that it is totally foolproof (hackers and such) but you can establish an account in a way that allows quite a lot of control.</p>
<p>Absolutely, the problem is that many kids accept "friends" requests from people that they don't know. They don't realize that while they may not say "I live at this address..." that if someone wanted to they could easily figure it out by putting little comments and smaller pieces of information together.<br>
A tech-guy from a boarding school came and spoke a couple of years at my kids school. After having had a discussion at his school about internet safety and the kids insisting THEY were safe, he said he set himself up on MySpace with a fake picture and made his profile be the worst he could think of - just out of jail for sexual assault, and various other not so good qualities. He then went and requested to be friends with many of those same kids and every one of them accepted his request. They had no idea it was him. </p>
<p>So, the controls are there, the kids just need to be smart and use them.</p>
<p>St. Andrew's allows it..</p>