Lori Aratani has a great article in the Washington Post that documents the recent Facebook trend of parents setting up profiles and sending friend requests to their children. The piece received coverage on a number of popular blogs and was dugg over 1,000 times over last weekend, highlighting new concerns over teenage privacy and online parenting. Quoting from the page:

More and more moms and dads are signing onto Facebook to keep up with their offspring. Not only are they friending (or attempting to friend) their sons and daughters, they’re friending their sons’ and daughters’ friends.

Faced with parental profiles, students have several online options: ignore, accept, or grant limited access to their online life. Reactions from students have been mixed, but most feel that parental pokes are an invasion of their privacy. Having mom and dad on Facebook is like “ ‘having them walk into my room’ ” said a 17 year old high school student quoted in the piece. Anti-Parent Facebook groups have even sprung up, with heated comments about virtual progenitors. Most see Social Networking as the domain of the young and view bosses, teachers and parents as an unwelcome intrusion that limit their self-expression.

Others, though, are not concerned with their rents getting digital and have welcomed them as virtual friends. It is important for parents and students to communicate, online and off, and for both groups to set up ground rules for acceptable online behavior. And, as the article mentions, parents should be aware of the privacy function of Facebook; your kid may approve your friend request, but that doesn’t mean you are seeing the whole story.

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