1. Facebook for Parents
Mike Murtha

2. About me
• 20+ years in Information Technology,
currently at Hewlett-Packard (HP)
• Web developer – Wall Street Journal
(wsj.com)
• Now a Project Manager of web
development teams
• Son in high school, daughter in college

3. Baseline
• Age range of kids?
• ‘Regular’ phone in the house, or cell only?
• PC in the kids’ room? Wireless laptop?
• Kids have account on Facebook?
MySpace? Twitter? Other? Don’t know?
• Parent accounts?

4. Facebook
• Name came from the actual books handed
out at college with pictures of incoming
freshmen; site started out as a service for
college students only
– “Friend” your kids
– Review your kids’ profile pages
– Review who is “friends” with your kids
– Select “Info” for your kids
– Look for your kids in pictures, ‘tagged’ by
others

5. Terminology
• Profile
– Info about you, that you enter into Facebook
• Wall
– Location where you post information to share
with others (and if you allow it, others can
post info there too)
• News Feed
– Information posted by your ‘Friends’

6. Facebook Home Page

7. Your Facebook Profile

8. Preview Your & Your
Kid’s Profile

9. Your Facebook Wall

10. Privacy Settings –
for you and your kids

11. Privacy Settings

12. Application Settings –
Check this on your both your and
your kid’s profile!

13. Adding/Managing Posts

14. Friends/Lists

15. Make a Post available to a
Friend List

16. General cautions
• Ensure settings are set to Private -
nevertheless, personal information is
available to anyone you are connected to
• “going on vacation” posting could make
your home vulnerable while you’re gone
• College and professional recruiters
absolutely look at online profiles to make
hiring/acceptance decisions

17. General Cautions (cont’d)
• “Friends of Friends” – multiply your child’s
number of friends by itself – that’s how
many people have access
• Be careful of photos that could send the
wrong message
• NOTHING is ever permanently deleted on
the web

18. Tips for talking with your kids about
Facebook (source: Common Sense Media)
• Encourage kids to be selective about what they share
• Use strict privacy settings
• Pre-approve tags
• Use notification settings
• Don't post your location
• Set rules about what's appropriate to post
• If in doubt, take it out
• Watch out for ads
• Create your own page
• Choose your battles

19. Things You Should Never Reveal on
Facebook (source: Yahoo Finance)
• Your full birthdate and place
• Vacation Plans
• Home Address
• Risky Behaviors
• Password Clues
• Confessionals

20. Looking under the hood –
Beyond Facebook
• Web History – Ctrl-H
• Internet Explorer – Tools/Internet Options
• Cookies – General/Browsing History
• Anti-virus software
• Email spam filters
• “Google” your kids (and yourself!)

21. Follow-up requests:
• “Like” my “Facebook Dad” Facebook page, and
“Share” any postings that interest you
• Post a link to www.facebookdad.com on your
Facebook wall

22. Thank you!
• My facebook: www.facebook.com/mike.murtha
• My twitter: www.twitter.com/murthamike
www.twitter.com/facebookdad
• My blog: www.facebookdad.com
• My email: mike.murtha@comcast.net