Debate over underage tweens using Facebook

And another recent survey suggests the number of parents who allow their 10- to 12-year-olds on social media sites has doubled in the past year. But only one in five parents say they'd let their kids use these sites unmonitored.

I've friended both my son, who's now 13, and my 15-year-old daughter. And, yes, I do frequently monitor their activity. Still, I now think I should have barred my son from signing up underage after speaking with Dr. Michael Rich, an adolescent medicine physician who heads the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston.

"The issue I have isn't about the age itself -- there's nothing magical about 13 in terms of children's cognitive abilities -- but about the law in place," Rich says. "You're teaching a kid to lie and scam the system, which isn't a good example to be setting."

That's a pretty convincing point.

While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a recent interview with Fortune magazine that kids under 13 should be allowed on Facebook for its online media educational benefits, that would require changing the law or working out a way for parents, like myself, to prove that we've given permission.

Unless that comes to fruition, I'm not going to allow my youngest child to sign up until he turns 13. (Happily for me, he's not asking since none of his friends are on it.)

However, the larger issue for parents is not so much the age at which their kids enter social networking sites but how they handle themselves once they're online. Rich suggests parents set the following rules.

-- Log on only in public areas of the house. Kids should sit in the kitchen or den -- rather than locked in their bedrooms -- when chatting online with friends, so a parent can supervise.

-- Be your child's networking adviser rather than policeman. Kids should be encouraged to reach out for help if they're in trouble for, say, inadvertently being pulled into a bullying session in a chat room. But they should also be made aware of the rules ahead of time and the consequences. "Work out with your kid in advance under what circumstances they'll lose their Facebook account," Rich says.