 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Bebo
Common Sense Media says
Like all social sites, some iffy content is here.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that although this social networking site is open to anyone 13 and up, it's primarily geared toward college kids, and young teens shouldn't be roaming around. There's a lot going on on this award-winning social networking site -- including sexual slang, pics with underage drinking or suggestive images, mentions of suicide, cartoon graphics of guns, and links to iffy content, just to name a few. Kids can also chat with each other in real time with Bebo's AIM. There are a lot of ads and it's quite confusing to distinguish between free user sites and commercial featured sites. The good news? Kids can make their profile only accessible to friends and family. And, they can block or report people to make things safer.
What's it about?
Already ranked the top social networking site in the U.K., Ireland, and New Zealand, BEBO.COM is next in line behind MySpace and Facebook in the U.S. as the place for teens and young adults to showcase their life in multimedia, keep in touch with and meet friends, or just hang out. The endless options for personal home page content are dizzying: Photos, organized by event or subject; YouTube videos; widgets, including a timed countdown to events; music; polls, like a celebrity look-alike photo game with the user as the real star; blogs and messages that others can also comment on; photos of friends with links of their own sites; a whiteboard that anyone can draw or write on (and the site "owner" can erase); and more.
Is it any good?
Straight-up advertising is posted clearly on Bebo.com's main page. The more subversive advertising, however, comes in the form of "Featured Sponsored Profiles" and videos that look just like the kids' free sites, but when viewed are clearly promoting a product, movie, or other commercial venture.
Good News: Bebo.com's user rules and Internet safety guidelines, posted on the networking site's main page, are some of the most practical and thorough among social networking sites. Bad News: Not a shocker, but not all users follow those safety tips and some explicit sites find ways to get their links onto some pages. Some of the content posted by users includes the standard teen social networking bugaboos like the latest camera phone shots of partying teens downing beers in the rented limo. That said, site creators have established safety tools, like a "Report Abuse" click available on each member's profile. And they've established sound rules and guides, like remembering that your online "friends" are not really friends to be trusted. Probably the best safety feature of all? The Bebo.com option to only allow access to your home page to real-life friends and family.
Explore, discuss, enjoy
Families can talk about Internet safety and commercialism. What personal information is okay to post online? Also, which home pages are created specifically to sell you something, like the new Bratz movie or a band's latest album?
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- All members
- Parents
- Teens & kids
Kid, 9 years old
May 1, 2010
AGE
What other families should know:
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Parent of an infant
April 8, 2009
AGE
I Laughed
I Laugh when i seen my baby daddy playing with our one mouth old baby girl. Her name is Da'Shay Talia Henry she wuz born on Feburary the 20,2009, and we luv our child with all our heart.
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Teen, 16 years old
February 26, 2010
AGE
Love it
What other families should know:
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Teen, 16 years old
January 9, 2010
AGE
i think that if a good child want a bebo just check up on their page and chose their friends and make shure you now their password and username
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Parent of 6, 8, 9, 12, and 15 year old
November 2, 2009
AGE
Very iffy
While Bebo is great in enabling people to stay in contact with friends and family members, parents need to be actively supervising their child's use of it.
Parents should first be aware that though one must be 13 to have a homepage, all that is required is a birthdate, meaning that children younger then 13 are easily able to sign up by simply lying about the year they were born in.
Parents should also be aware of things such as the Daily Babe application, in which the person who has added the application is sent a photograph of a young woman who they then rate according to looks. Most of the photographs are rather pornographic, meaning your 13 year old can now quite easily access porn daily.
Users are also able to put "stickers" on their homepage, which are pictures of often quite sexual and/or violent content. And Bebo is a prime location for cyber bullying.
It's a great social networking site, and can be heaps of fun for teenagers, it just needs a lot of parental guidance.
What other families should know:
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Teen, 13 years old
December 21, 2009
AGE
GREAT site, BAD user submitted content
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Teen, 13 years old
July 28, 2009
AGE
it's for teens not for kids
it is sometimes hard to be a teen
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Teen, 13 years old
September 5, 2011
AGE
bebo is better than facebook
i have a bebo facebook is worse than this and its more private
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