Parents: What’s an easy way for predators to meet your kids? On Facebook. That’s why every single day Facebook boots 20,000 underage users off the site. Although experts say that’s good news, it’s just a fraction of the children claiming to be older than they are on their Facebook page. Facebook’s legal minimum age is 13. In fact, the site’s official privacy policy states that if you’re under 13, don’t even try to register or give Facebook any personal info about yourself. Social media is very popular among kids. A study by the Pew Internet & Life Project found that half of all North American 12-year-olds use social networking sites like Facebook, even though they don’t meet the age requirement, and the popularity grows with another birthday or two:

• 64 percent of 13-year-olds use social networking,
• and 82 percent of young people ages 14 to 17 are social networkers.

So, what’s being done to keep all these minors safe? Lawmakers recently told Facebook management that they’re worried because the site allows young teens to share their personal info – including their address and phone number - just like adult users can. Since younger Internet users are the most vulnerable to predators, lawmakers urged Facebook to make it “impossible” for teens to post private info. Of course, right now Facebook has no way to detect whether anyone is telling the truth about their age, name, and location, which means young kids and sexual predators could be chatting, mingling, and meeting online.

So, bottom line for parents: Set web guidelines for your kids, so they know what is and isn’t okay to post online. Experts say if they are on Facebook, make sure the security settings on their page are locked down so that only their “friends” can see their page and their posts, and insist that your kids “friend” you on Facebook, so you can keep an eye on their page.