More and more I notice that friends of mine are involving their children—even ones yet to make their life debut—in social network sites that they, as adults, frequent. Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter…you name it, if it’s a website and it has social component to it and if you have kids, chances are you are doing it, too.

But that’s okay. Just learn to accept that your children are on the cusp of being more popular (and smarter) than you; and their circle of friends, and friends’ friends, and friends’ friends’ friends will one day destroy—in sheer numbers—your rather tiny group of friends, colleagues and acquaintances. By the way, book club meets at my house this week. Exactly.

So, social media and kids. What does it mean? A lot of things, actually. The ever-evolving presence of children in social media channels has impacted the way we perceive these online channels in various ways. For example, privacy for children. Facebook doesn’t allow children under 13 to have their own profile, period. Which means you cannot create a profile for them anymore—well, you can, but once the privacy cops figure it out, Facebook will delete your child’s profile immediately, with no warning.

But check this out: Circle of Moms. It’s a parenting site that has an application within Facebook where moms can create individual profile pages for each of their children. From there, moms can have fun updating their child’s status, upload photos and start connecting their children with siblings, family members and others. Here’s a look at my son’s profile.

Another way we see the impact of social media on children and their parents is the way moms and dads are scooping up domain names for their young ones. The phrase ‘domain squatting’ comes to mind; however, is it really squatting if your intention is to hand over the URL reigns to your child once he/she is old enough? Chances are you are not banking on profiting from a few domains you have set aside for your children.

Then there’s Flickr, Twitter, YouTube…the list just gets bigger by the day as new social networks spawn and people continue to make babies. I myself am guilty of creating a Flickr and YouTube account for my 4-year old daughter. Really, all I did was name the accounts after her and feature content that involves her romping around our house, saying crazy things like “Daddy, who painted eyes on us?” and tackling an unsuspecting boy at our local Gymboree. Again, this is a great way to aggregate pictures and videos of your children—plus, with the ‘commenting’ functionality on social media sites, you capture sentiments from loved ones regardless of where they live. They do it online, on their time, and it’s real (versus a boilerplate greeting card or something  like that).

Of course, though, as parents continue to involve their children in their own social media endeavors, the more we’ll hear the divide over what’s appropriate and when parents are simply going too far. For example, should you have a separate Twitter account for you child, or could you just broadcast to your followers what your son is blurting out via your Twitter account? Is one YouTube account sufficient for the entire family or is it necessary for Junior and little Jane to have their very own pages, all wallpapered out with their favorite colors and patterns?

Personally, I say, “Why not?” If the technology is there and you are using good judgment and your intention is to connect your children with family and friends in an immediate, engaging way, then go for it. It sure beats calling grandma in Phoenix and holding the telephone up to my daughter’s mouth hoping she’ll say something cute on the spot. Instead, grandma can check out YouTube to see a ton of video of my daugher in all her goofy glory. Plus, once you’ve established a social network for your child via Facebook, for example, you begin making more connections with parents who may have things in common with you and have similar parenting philosophies—then, within the parameters of that site, you can exchange parenting tips/advice with other moms and dads, instead of scouring the Internet for sites that may not be credible or interesting.

Finally, as marketers and parents of young children, we are already immersing our children in the world of social media, and there’s no doubt that how they perceive and utilize social media as they maneuver through adolescence and adulthood will be more sophisticated and effective in both their personal and professional lives. Just imageine how they’ll use Facebook and Twitter as a marketing tool as they join the ranks of strategists, interaction designers and technologists of their generation. That is, if Facebook and Twitter are still household names.

So, what do you think? Are you for social media and kids, or do you think it’s just too much too soon for parents to get their kids involved?

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