Lauren Cullen
Staff Writer

You log on to your Facebook account, and see a new friend request. Obviously you get a little excited to see who it is. But hold on, it is from your mom. Do you accept it?

According to consumerreports.com, eighteen percent of parents are friends with their children on Facebook.

Some students at WA say their parents require them to accept the request, or else they will not have an account.

“I have to be friends with my mom,” says freshman Michelle Porras.

Some students admit to making their status updates private to their parents. It’s as easy as clicking a box. However, some students did not even know you could do such a thing.

Then there are Facebookers who want to friend their parents.They say that they want to make sure their parents know they can trust their kids to be responsible enough to handle something like Facebook.

“I am[friends wih a parent on Facebook] because I choose to be,”said freshman Jack Leeber.

The general consensus from parents is that they want to make sure their kids and their kids’ friends are appropriately using the site.

“I am friends with both of my daughters, ” said Karen McAleese, mother of a freshman and a junior at Westford Academy. “I do periodically check their profiles. I see who they are friends with, make sure conversations are appropriate and make sure security settings are in place.”

Mary Kohan, mother of a freshman at WA, said she is friends with her children on Facebook but does not go through everything on their profiles.

“I want to know who my children are talking to,” said Kohan. “But not everything, because I just want to keep tabs on my children.”

Parents’ curiosity for the online activities of their children is growing, just like the number of parents on Facebook.