I agree with much of your post, Kalekona. My kids. 19 and 23 now, grew up using FB.
I LOVED FB for many reasons. Number one, I was able to 'research' the friends they were hanging out with when they were in middle and high school. I had their passwords, and I knew what 'bad' happened before I even got the call. LOL If a party became rowdy and the cops were called, it would hit FB instantly. I could call my kid and say " I AM ON MY WAY to pick you up, prepare to be grounded for awhile." they could not hide anything from us.
If she was interested in a new boy, I could read his wall, and read the messages he sent her. That helped me make wise decisions about who she was or wasn't going on a date with. This was when they were younger of course, back when we still had a say in all that.
But most important, imo, was that the kids could do research on their own. They could see if some new friend was really into the stoner crowd or not. My son would not bother with girls that he thought were 'playing' all the guys on her FB. It was a quick way for them to assess new friendships, without falling into the wrong crowd in the meantime.
We live in a very precocious, fast paced community. I think FB was a great tool for the kids to sort through the various cliques and groups and find their own way, without having to go to a coke party to find out they do not want to be involved. My daughter met a cute guy from another school in her drivers training class. They were hanging out after class a little and he asked her out on a date. By researching his FB she saw that he was very good friends with the boys that she knows were doing and even selling coke. She saw pix of him at their parties. Without FB she may have gone out on a date with him. *Shudder*
Well, I guess I can see your point. I'll admit I do use it to track my three brothers-in-law, as best I can. They are all teens, the youngest is 15. They all have FB. They don't have a dad and their mom is crazy, more like a 14 year old herself, so it's up to us to make sure they stay on the straight and narrow, etc., which is really hard and often bumpy.
If they were girls, or younger or mine, I wouldn't want them on FB, the internet, having cellphones, at 11, etc., but they are older and I guess it's true that it can be a valuable tool to track them and their friends.
For example, I once saw a convo. one was having with some FB contacts. One kid appeared to be being bullied by another and my little brother-in-law was defending him. But the kid appeared to be suicidal and saying strange things. I finagled his name and apartment complex from my brother-in-law and called the police. The kid was hospitalized briefly.
But it's not fail safe. I found out recently that the middle boy had been drinking and smoking pot. Boy did the you know what hit the fan when I found out! A lot of disappointment. He's back on track now, thank God. But, there was no indication whatsoever from his FB that he or any of his friends were doing anything like that at all.
Also, kids these days know how to do things that many of us adults can't fathom, with technology. They know how to create accounts we don't know about and to make them private so we can't find them.
My feeling is that adolescents need to really be monitored. Computers should not be in their rooms and kids who haven't even hit puberty should not have any kind of social networking account or have unmonitored access to the internet.
Maybe I've become old fashioned or behind the times but the world of today, with kids growing up so fast scares the he!! out of me. It really does.
What this has to do with precious Celina's case, I can't say. But, so many of these cases with these adorable little girls going missing or turning up dead, well, it seems these kids often don't have a safe home or are truly looked after in the way they should be. I believe we may see that that was the case with Celina - that more care of her should have been taken by her parents. I guess we'll see.
:sick::sick::sick: maybe this is why he lives in NH now and not in "Canaan, VT" like he claimed on facebook. Not that I am saying he did anything at all!! Just mentioning this, because really, anyone could claim insanity. I am not ready to point fingers at anyone.
