5 New Facebook Rules for Kids and Teens

According to an article in Good Housekeeping, June 2010, "A teen's Facebook pate is like a diary of her/his life and oftentimes it's open to hackers or just plain creeps," says Neal O'Farrell, cybercrime and identity theft expert at http://www.idguardian.com/ . Help you child with these tips:

1. Forget full names. Instead of using his/her name, your child can use a nickname or a first-middle name combo to maintain privacy-a good idea in case he/she slips up and doesn't want a college admissions officer or future employers seeing those online blunders.

2. Choose trick passwords. Suggesting a long password (10-plus characters) and changing it every three to six months. O'Farrell suggest this trick: Combine the first letters of words in a sentence ("I was born in Iowa in 1995" IwbiIi1995)

3. Restrict access. The privacy setting "friends of friends" invites possibly hundreds of thousands of people to see kids' information and photos. Choosing "only friend" will limit viewing to people they've confirmed as pals.

4. Stick to the past. Discourage kids from broadcasting plans, which gives potential stalkers info on their whereabouts - Marnie Soman

5. Number 5 is something I heard recently. Tell your child to only write or download things on Facebook they would want their parents to see. That way private or embarrassing information will never be an issue.