Maybe I’m the coolest dad ever? Two of my 11 year old daughter’s friends have now asked me to be their friends on Facebook. Saying no would be awkward. Saying yes is awkward.
What’s the precedent?
Kids today…
Heh. Having an large number of friends on Facebook is a status thing, so these kids are either cunning or desperate. 
I’d say no, and play the old fogey card. “Nah, I’m just on Facebook to see where my daughter hangs out, and to be in touch with some family members who live far away. I’m not into this friends thing. But thanks for asking!”
That way, you prevent these kid’s parents to look through their kid’s friend list, see a gwon-up guys’ name they don’t recognize, and become paranoid.
I don’t know much about facebook, but I would be very hesitant about doing anything which might be perceived as fraternizing with an 11 year old girl.
A couple of my daughters friends are on my facebook. They say they’re my daughters. There’s not much further interaction though - I’ll throw something at them now and again.
They asked you, so it’s cool. You can even add in a note that says “My daughter’s friends” next to their names.
Don’t “Friend” them. Hell, my own sister’s friends have sent me friend requests on Facebook and I turned them down.
I do not see why you would say no to their friend request. Are you that worried about looking like a pedophile?
It seems to me that saying yes to their friend request should not be awkward at all.
By befriending them you have a convenient means of spying on your daughter. Maybe the need for a little surveillance it isn’t an issue now, but in a few years when they start posting photo upon photo…
In your place I would friend them and include a reference to them being your daughter’s friends in the “friend detail.” That assumes that your reason for hesitation is that you don’t want people to wonder why you’re friends with an 11 year old. If it’s more “Joe might post those pictures of my from the company party” then say you’re an old man and beg off.
I thought that you had to be 13 to have a Facebook page? I remember reading that somewhere on the site.
More that just FaceBook… I think all of them are that way. As well as any other service that collects and stores information (forums, blogs, etc) that is publicly viewed.
It’s not like anyone really cares about this. The 16 year old who wants to watch porn is not gonna click “Leave” when he arrives at the “I agree I am 18” option.
Not sure it’s a good idea to befriend them… You never know where that might go or what can spark of it even though they are your daughters friends. Plus, the fact that they aren’t allowed to be on there…
ETA: You don’t have to say yes or no. Just let it sit there in the request box.
I’m not familiar with FaceBook - is there an automated option to request to be friends with all of one of your friend’s friends? If you’re friends with your kids, I can see how you might have received an automated request from one of their friends. Or did these kids ask personally?
If it’s automated request (not a personal request from one of them specifically to you), I’d decline, as becoming friends with one of your friend’s *parents *is clearly not the intent.
As far as I know, there is no such automated option. Facebook will suggest people that you may know who are friends of several of your friends, but it is always up to you to push the befriend button.
My 12-year-old wanted a Facebook page so that she could play games against me. That’s when I found out you had to be 13, so I told her she has to wait. I’d tell her the same thing if she wanted to sign up for the SDMB.
I don’t think I’d hesitate to add my daughter’s friends as friends if I knew them, but I am a woman, so perhaps that makes a difference.
It’s probably come from the ‘people you may know’ feature, which basically works by identifying people with whom you have mutual friends. Some people do apparently go through the list this presents them with indiscriminately adding everybody as a friend, even those they’ve never met, from some of the tangential friend requests I’ve had.
Not a bad idea at all. Plus, make heavy use of the Limited Profile option if you want.
Don’t worry about it – I have all my kid’s friends in my Facebook. Partially I think they just like to up their ‘numbers’, partially they will throw a ‘hi’ or something equally boring my way about every six months. I have kids that I taught years ago surface and friend me – very surreal.
It’s not a law that you have to be 13. It’s that if you are under 13 you need written parental consent to have access to a specific website.
You can read more about it here. Link
Addressing the OP again: Even if they did have consent (which is pretty unlikely), it wouldn’t really make it any better of an idea to befriend them. I’m sure you can live without them being on your friends list, and vice versa.
Should you be friends with those kids’ parents that’d be a different story, sort of.
It’s not the law, but it is Facebook’s policy.
They do not have an option for a parent to give consent for someone under 13.
This.
You’d be surprised at all the stupid stuff I see from my hs friends being posted on facebook now. A few of my own relatives don’t friend anyone because they’ve got such “incriminating” photos that I get to be privvy too. Heck, I don’t friend my own sister because i don’t WANT to know sometimes. But I kinda wish I had sometimes, just to see what’s going on.
So yeah, take the time now to friend 'em, cuz you’re not going to get that chance later. Though, when you get unfriended in a few years that’s when you start to worry. 
Count me in as part of the “I don’t see why it would be awkward to accept the friend request” group.
Unless, of course, you have something on yours that you wouldn’t want them, or your daughter, to see. In that case, the limited profile is very handy.
I don’t have kids, but I have friends who do, and I am reluctant to let any of them “friend” me on facebook. I don’t think there are any risque or “incriminating” pictures of me on facebook, BUT I make a lot of off color or just private jokes on facebook. Say a comment on a photograph that would be funny to adults, but might, if taken out of context, cause embarrassment to me or someone else. If one of these kids is my friend on facebook, then I believe she gets to read all these comments, jokes, status updates, etc. that I make. I don’t trust a 13 year old (or younger) kid, to exercise good judgment about this. I mean the whole point of BEING 13 is that you have crappy judgment about this kind of thing.
This is actually why I don’t want to be “friends” on facebook with certain coworkers. I’m afraid that I’ll make some joke on facebook, and they will read it and then stupidly repeat it to my boss or a client or something.