Busted on Facebook!

Would this adorable face lie?

Sarah Moore is a resident blogger on CuddleBugs. This is her first guest post on TweenBeat.

I wanted to share a recent misadventure with my stepdaughter…

Marissa is 10.5 and very intelligent, but lately has been using her powers for less good and more “evil.”

We allow Marissa computer access at home for school work and email, which we monitor.  She has been very responsible in terms of the internet and is aware of the basic safety precautions such as never give out personal info.

I think this is why it threw us for a loop when I found out my innocent little fifth-grader had opened a Facebook account during a recent weekend at her mom’s.  She had asked if she could have one last month and we pointed out that not only could it be inappropriate but even downright dangerous for a child, and also it is Facebook’s policy that no one under the age of 13 have an account.

Being somewhat handy on the computer and quite sneaky when I need to be, I started doing a little digging once I realized what she had done.  How disappointing when upon further investigation I discovered that Marissa had lied about her name and age to obtain said account.

We were awarded custody of Marissa several years ago and have been working hard to raise her to be an honest Christian woman with good morals, so as you can guess her father and I were/are pretty upset about this.

So on one hand, this is not the end of the world, just a Facebook account, right?  Maybe, but on the other hand this was about more than that.  It was about lying to us and lying to others to get something she knew she should not have and had been told she could not have by her parents.  It was also about the safety of a child.  Who knows what kind of people could contact her on Facebook!  Maybe I have read too many stories in the paper about pedophiles and other predators, but I would always rather be safe than sorry.

Needless to say, we had a nice looong lecture about why she is too young to have a Facebook account and of course the lying, followed by 2 weeks of grounding and no computer privileges for a while.

I just don’t get it though, she is only 10.5!  I expected the occasional attitude and minor drama with girlfriends, but not this, not yet.  I don’t remember starting to push my boundaries and break the rules until I was a teenager!  Then again, that was quite a while ago (:

Anyone have any experience with this kind of thing?  Any tips?