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.
Educational value:Good skills in graphic design, layout, and site creativity.
Positive messages:Lots of content geared toward college set, not appropriate for the 13-year-old minimum site age.
Violence:Specific to individual home pages. Mentions of suicide, cartoon graphics of guns.
Sex:Specific to individual home pages. Sexual slang, suggestive pics, links to iffy content.
Language:Specific to individual home pages. Occasional swearing, sexual slang.
Consumerism:Blurring of lines between free user sites and commercial featured sites. Ads on a lot of pages.
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.
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.