Teens/Pictures on Facebook - WWYD?

If I had the chance, I'd say something to the girl directly....something like,

"As you may or may not know, in our household, there's no such thing as privacy on Facebook. You need to know that I've seen photos of you in which it is clear you may be engaged in activity that is illegal and could get you in a significant amount of trouble. So, I think you need to ask yourself whether it's worth it to do what you've been seen by at least one adult doing and how you might best rectify the matter."

BTW, I have no problem calling a friend's mother and saying, "In our household, there's not such thing as privacy on Facebook. Unfortunately, I've seen photos of your daughter and in them, she appears to be consuming alcohol. The reason for my call to you is to simply let you know about something that is obviously very public and potentially problematic for your daughter - not to judge. Please let me know if there's anything I can do. I hate to be viewed as a tattle tale, but I had to ask myself.... if others were aware of something like this and nobody ever told me about it, I'd be pretty upset."

'Cause let me tell you somethin.....the day my kid gets kicked off a sports team or loses college admissions recommendations or whatever due to behavior and actions I didn't know about but lots of other people did.... that's the day I'm going to wonder what signals I've been sending....I want to know. Having to pick up the pieces after the crap hits the fan is so much harder than addressing the issue before it gets to that point.

And if the parents tell you to mind you own beeswax, fair enough.

Facebook is the debil.
 
OP I think you did the right thing. No harm is getting a message to her. Then it's entirely up to her whether she untags herself or not. As adults we should help guide kids through these pitfalls and help save them from themselves. ;) It just boggles my mind how parents are not friends with their kids on FB. I'm appalled at the things that show up that I'm sure the parents would be horrified to know exist. However, it's also their stupidity that keeps them from being friends with their kids in the first place. I feel it's my responsibility to monitor my child until their are no longer a minor. And I have asked my daughter (15, almost 16) to pull things down off her page that her friends have posted or tagged her and others in.
 


Here's how a similar scenario played out for me...take away from it what you want:

My daughter was looking at photos on her cousin's FB page (my brother's daughter). My brother is extremely religious...EXTREMELY. There were numerous pictures of his DD on her page (she was a HS freshman at the time...same age as my DD) scantily clad, simulating kissing other girls, pictures with references to being drunk....I was shocked. Beyond shocked. My brother and I aren't very close...but it was apparent he had no idea these photos were there, because I can't fathom him allowing that. So, I thought about it for a few days, and decided to tell him. If it were pictures of MY child like that, I'd want to know! I sent a message to him. A few days later, her FB page is history. I got an email from his wife saying how my brother had been so upset to find this out, and that he was really disappointed in his DD, and hopefully she'd learn something from this (my brother did not email me...his wife did). But to my shock, I also found out they told their DD that I was one who ratted on her! :o I couldn't believe it. WHAT would have compelled them to do that? Their DD did email me and apologize for the photos, and said she realized she'd made some bad choices. So, while I was a little ticked to be outed as the tattle tale, I still felt I did the right thing.

Fast forward about a year later. My niece gets her FB page back. How do I know this? Because I see she's posting on one of my other nieces's pages. So, I go to send her a friend request...she blocks me. And my DD.

To this day I can't fathom WHY my brother and his wife would have told her that it was my DD who told me about the pics, and me who told her parents. I was doing them a FAVOR, and they made me look like the bad guy. There has been no real contact with any of them since. It hurts, but good riddance, I say.
 
Fast forward about a year later. My niece gets her FB page back. How do I know this? Because I see she's posting on one of my other nieces's pages. So, I go to send her a friend request...she blocks me. And my DD.
.

As a teenager I certainly would have blocked you too- but actually I would have blocked you before you even sent the friend request LOL-
 


lol - there's no way I would have called this girl's mom. I was much more willing to help her stay out of trouble than I was willing to throw her under the bus. Honestly, if you let your high school seniors go on an unsupervised college visit over a weekend and the friend they are staying with is celebrating her 21st birthday, there's no chance the mom doesn't already know what is/was going on. I just didn't think it served anyone's best interest to have it up on FB for all to see and for her to possibly get in a lot of trouble. I'm glad it worked out the way it did.
 
MYOB. My god daughter put up pictures on myspace of her drinking beer when she was 13 or 14. I told her mother (my best friend) and I became the bad guy lying about her daughter. Our relationship has never been the same.

:eek:
shame when your heart was is in the right place, some people just dont see it that way...:grouphug:
OP; MYOB may be a hard lesson learned, but learned none the less......
 
:eek:
shame when your heart was is in the right place, some people just dont see it that way...:grouphug:
OP; MYOB may be a hard lesson learned, but learned none the less......

I'm sorry for anyone who had their feelings hurt, but I can totally see how this happens. No teen wants to think there's someone on FaceBook who is tattling on her. This girl friended me a couple of years ago so she could see some pictures of a trip we had taken, and she's probably forgotten I'm seeing this stuff. Several of DD17's friends have friended me. If I see something iffy, I usually keep my mouth shut, even to DD. This time I mentioned it to her because I didn't want her friend to get in trouble.

Our family rule is your mom has to be your friend while you are in high school. I don't know why other parents don't have this rule.

I like seeing some of their pictures - helps me keep a finger on what is going on in the class and whether sometihng is getting out of control in DD's social life. No point in reminding them that we can see what they are doing!!
 
As a teenager I certainly would have blocked you too- but actually I would have blocked you before you even sent the friend request LOL-

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. And if you had got me into as much trouble as you had to have got her, I wouldn't be speaking to you ever again either!

I have to wonder why you didn't speak to your niece first.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top