On Facebook, Kids Often Don't Know Who "Friends" Are

By: Amanda Cochran
Topics: Elementary School ,; High School ,; College ,; Middle School

(Credit: AP)

NEW YORK (CBS) You may think your kids are behaving responsibly online and know everyone they talk to on Facebook. But in a startling new AOL survey conducted by The Nielsen Company more than half of the children surveyed - 54 percent - said they don't personally know all of the friends accepted into their social network.

Sound scary?

Well, parents are trying to stay involved in their kids' online lives. According to the survey, 76 percent of parents with kids on Facebook claim to have "friended" their teens.

But 29 percent of teenagers apparently would have their parents butt out, saying they're ready to "un-friend" their parents if given the choice. And who do they want out of their social networking lives the most? Mom. These kids are twice as likely to want to "un-friend" mom versus dad.

What can parents do if their child decides to "un-friend" them or hide online? There's a variety of software programs available to monitor your child's habits both on his or her phone and online. Check out a few of the best featured on "The Early Show."

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by kernj1 September 12, 2010 11:22 AM EDT: The rule in our house is: If you send a message to someone that you don't already know, your internet social privileges are gone forever.

To enforce this, every now and then I will walk in to our daughter's computer room, and ask to sit down at the computer to review the messages.

Sure, some will call it invasive, but, there is no other good way to enforce the rule.; Reply to this comment


by GetAGrip007 August 24, 2010 5:07 PM EDT: It is so true- my kids graduated from a fairly large high school, went on to fairly large colleges- they have an astounding amount of 'friends' on Facebook. To make a point to my kids, I subscribed to Facebook under a bogus name with a photo of a flower- and made friends with over 125 people in less than 3 weeks- only one person asked where we had met! Once I was befriended, friends of friends befriended me! Luckily FB does have privacy setting which of course many fail to use... I have since taken it down-; Reply to this comment