As more and more of the people I know and the people they know are having kids, I’ve seen more photos popping up on Facebook of newborns and childhood moments. And even though some kids don’t even know how to type, they already have Facebook profiles! It seems the parents are registering their children on Facebook. That was when I realized that the days of embarrassing childhood photos tucked away in dusty albums only visible when visiting the parents are disappearing quickly.

I’m beginning to wonder what kind of consequences their parents’ actions will have on the kids in the future especially since the Internet is forever. There’s already discussion about how Facebook will affect future politicians who are growing up now.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article on a new Stanford class on Facebook for Parents (registration has been full since early February) and it’s taught by BJ Fogg, a Facebook researcher at Stanford. He also taught the first course on Facebook apps and the subsequent Psychology of Facebook course. He’s teaching the Facebook for Parents class with his sister who has eight(!) kids. They also have a newsletter. The course plans:

Feb. 19: The ABC’s of Facebook: New user to fanatic
March 5: Ten steps to protect loved ones on Facebook
March 19: Friending, posting & updating: Life skills for the future
April 2: Five ways to stay ahead of kids on Facebook

And their Five Step for Parents on Facebook:

1. Join Facebook.
2. “Friend” your kids.
3. Review your kids’ profile pages.
4. Review who is “friends” with your kids.
5. Select “More About” for your kids.

I don’t know if I completely agree since according to danah boyd’s research, teens “want publics of peers, not publics where creeps and parents lurk“. And checking out the kid’s “friends” when done too much seems like a form of helicopter parenting where parents are asking for roommate switches before their kid starts his or her very first day at college and where parents are going on their kid’s job interviews. (By the way, I gave a presentation about Facebook to College Housing Administrators last year at an international conference and they were amazed at how my university doesn’t release roommate information and were in disbelief as to how parents aren’t freaking out about it.)

As for “friending”, I never friend the students who work for me, but will accept their friend requests and I find that’s true for many of my colleagues. But perhaps it’s different when you talk about the parent/child relationship. Then again, doesn’t some freedom encourage learning instead of sheltering and protecting them in a bubble too much?