Gadgetory

two years ago kieran bora then 12 saw her friends joining facebook and asked her mom if she could do the same even though she didn't meet the minimum age limit of 13 he just did what most people do and just put like fake birthday on facebook and i wanted to do that but i'm in all said no mum Luna was firm but child advocates say underage facebook users are common about 7 million kids on facebook under the age of 13 and five million are under the age of 10 luna allowed kieran to open an account once she was old enough but the privilege came with advice I told her anything you post on Facebook is out there so it always come to haunt you experts say parental guidance is key when kids start using social media for younger kids parents do friend their child when you sign up for facebook sit next to your child walk your child through the privacy settings creative friends only environment at first and then as as he or she acclimates to social media you know Leo pin' their privacy settings and how should you handle passwords with some coaxing Luna got ahold of Kieran's I didn't really want her to have my password because I thought if I wasn't fair but then I just gave it to her anyways but there is a strong argument against that I think it's really important to be consistent with your children about setting strong passwords and then keeping them to yourselves often times kids will share their Facebook passwords and that can get kids into a lot of trouble because other kids will post on on your behalf and how they manage that reputation is super important not just because of how their peers are going to view them but also potentially how colleges will look at them future employers that advice applies to popular photo-sharing apps like Instagram and snapchat too although snapchat carries an additional caveat since images sent from that app can only be viewed for a few seconds before they delete automatically snapchat doesn't teach kids the long-term lesson of a digital footprint parents should also watch warning signals that their child is spending too much time on social networks for example if they unfriend you good advice would be to keep your computer in a central location like a family room or a kitchen so that you can see what's going on above all it's important for families to have an ongoing conversation as their kids use of social media changes and evolves in San Francisco I'm Sumi das cnet.com for CBS News