Should Christian parents allow their kids to use Facebook before age twelve?

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In a previous post, I outlined a few reasons why you shouldn’t allow your child to have a Facebook account if they are twelve years old or younger. Most important of all is that Facebook rules do not allow it.

Pleading Ignorance?

If you are thinking about signing up your child for his or her own Facebook account and they are not yet thirteen, what are saying to them as a Christian parent?

“Oh honey, that thing in the ten commandments about lying was written long before God knew there would be such thing as social media.”

One thing for sure, if you have already signed up your child for a Facebook account and they are under thirteen, you KNOW they are not supposed to have it. When signing up, Facebook will say you are ineligible for an account if the birth date you list is even one day short of thirteen.

Read Proverbs and what that book has to say about wisdom. Sometimes, Facebook is dangerous for children, especially children under the age of thirteen. Wisdom also needs to be part of your decision making process.

Hypocrisy?

And think about what you’re doing when you lie about your child’s age, or give your children permission to lie about their age and give them permission to break the Facebook rules. For a parent who is not a Christian, they simply have to face a child who may now question any rule their parent gives them, and for good reason. As a Christian parent, your child may do the same and then also know in the back of their mind that the type of Christianity you practice has it’s asterisk marks. That’s a double whammy I don’t want to deal with. I hope you won’t want to deal with it either.

My apologies if I stepped on any toes with this post. But as a domestic missionary/church planter/preacher, I have a tendency to do just that. Do you know Christian parents who allow their kids a Facebook account before they turn thirteen? Are you one of those parents? Please leave a comment below.