A Parents' Guide to
facebook
By Anne Collier and Larry Magid
Co-Directors, ConnectSafely.org
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to our guidebook for parents! It's designed to help you understand what Facebook is and how to use it safely. With it, you will be better informed and able to communicate effectively with young Facebook users in your life. That's important because 1) if something goes wrong, we want our children to come to us and 2) as the Internet becomes increasingly social and mobile, a parent's guidance and support are ever more key to young people's well-being in social media and technology.
Note to readers: Facebook adds new features and updates old ones on a regular basis. This guide has the latest available information at time of publication (fall 2010). If you find anything in the guide that is out-of-date, please send an email to admin@connectsafely.org.
What is Facebook
Facebook is a social networking site used by more than 500 million people in every country on the planet, so far in 70 languages. The site's minimum age is 13, but teens represent only a minority population on Facebook. It's used by a lot of adults, certainly including parents. But not just individuals – Facebook's also used by businesses, organizations and governments all over the world, to send marketing messages, seek charitable funding and communicate with customers and constituents. Facebook is certainly not the only social networking site. There are thousands of them, based all over the world, some general-interest social sites for people in a specific country and some for specific interest groups in many categories – students, sports fans, film aficionados, cooks, travelers, gamers, music lovers, etc. Some social sites are designed for use on computers, some just for mobile phones. Facebook is accessed by both.
What do people do on Facebook
They chat, share photos (more than 100 million new ones each day!), post videos, stay in touch and share personal news, play games, plan meetings and get-togethers, send birthday and holiday wishes, do homework and business together, find and contact long-lost friends and relatives, review books and recommend restaurants, support charitable causes.... In fact, there's very little people can't do on Facebook. It's sometimes called a "social utility." Like a power grid, it provides the supporting infrastructure for the constantly changing everyday activities of hundreds of millions of users, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The amount of activity on Facebook is almost inconceivable. Every month, users add more than 30 billion pieces

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