Kids: Cell Phones or Social Networking?

Cell phones are all the rage with kids of every age now. But does that mean that all kids should have them? What about kids under the age of 13? Where do you cross the line? With different free online communication alternatives parents should consider their options before making the decision of taking on another cell phone plan, bill and the risk of not being able to properly monitor the communications taking place.

Online you can find so many different social networking sites and the most popular are not exactly made with your children in mind. However, there are a few out there that are kid and family friendly that work in much the same way as MySpace and FaceBook. One that I found that actually has a team on staff that monitors every message and page to ensure your family's safety and that the rules agreed to are being followed is at Tangle. It is a faith based and run site but you are not restricted by religion to join. They simply ask that everyone be respectful and tasteful in their communications and page postings. The whole site works and runs much like MySpace. You can post pictures, create your own background and much more.

Two other more popular places to let your kids head to is Nicktropolis or Disney Xtreme Digital. Both sites are familiar to kids of all ages and their target age group is children 14 and under. Each site offers interaction with the network's popular shows and the kids can chat about them and the games they like to play as well as set up “movie dates” with their friends online. Parents are also encouraged to have an account/profile as well to make sure that their children are being well supervised.

A huge plus for these sites is that neither one will allow your children to upload any pictures of themselves and if your child is under 13 and wants to sit in on a “friend chat room” permission must first be granted by the parent in an offline medium and your child will not be able to have access until that happens. For more information and comparisons between these two sites check out Nicktropolis and Disney Xtreme Digital or USA Today's article “Safer cyber-playrooms” where they have a full comparison chart of both at the end of the article.

Now for the even younger kids that haven't quite made it to the double digit age group but are ready to start chatting away with all their friends. Kids that are around 7 to 9 may have a harder time learning all the ins and outs of these social networking sites without a lot of constant help from mom and dad. So instead why not start them out with a simple web based email address? At their age they should have some experience with the computer and obviously recognize letters and numbers on the keyboard to spell. Walk them through all the basic functions of how the email system works and put together their contact list. They'll have lots of fun checking their email everyday and you won't have to worry too much about inappropriate happenings at this point since you will have total control over it anyway.