Children as young as 8 years old are seeing psychologists. Their parents say they are suffering anxiety as a result of being on Facebook; anxious about what friends are posting about them. In my opinion facebook is not a safe place for children under 13, and even teens need supervision there.

In this video, Suzanne Mostyn and I (both mums of 9 year olds) discuss some of the risks of social networking for children.

A report released in June 2011 states that 7.5 million children under 13 are on Facebook in the United States alone, and about 5 milllion of them are under 10. Another report said 38% of children in Europe aged between 9 and 13 are using social networking, and 1 in 5 of them are using Facebook.

Facebook's terms and conditions state that kids under 13 are not allowed to use the site - if Facebook finds out, their account may be deleted. Here is the link to Facebook's reporting form if you know a child under 13 has a Facebook account. Report an Underage Child However, if you find out your child is on Facebook without your permission, you can simply sit down with your child and require them to delete their account, if that's what you think should be done.