I signed up through Mom Central to check out a new social networking site for kids, Yoursphere. I was surprised when my 11 year old son asked if he could get a Facebook page because his best friend has one. I know there are privacy controls on Facebook, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with him being able to interact with people of all ages online. I signed up to do a test drive of Yoursphere because it’s limited to kids under the age of 18 and has strict parental controls and access.

My tester for this is Nathan, my 11 year old. We got started by setting up our profiles. In order for Nathan’s account to be approved, I had to also create a profile including an email address where I will be notified of any changes Nathan makes to his account, and, because of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, I’ll also be notified of any community postings he makes. We both uploaded a photo, and Nathan chose three security questions from drop down menus and provided the answers, in the event he forgets his password and wants it reset.

On my parent dashboard, I can see any content Nathan creates, any images he posts, mail he sends or receives, comments, and his profile, including his “what I’m doing” status updates. There’s also a button that lets me suspend his account if I find anything I don’t approve of. I was surprised how quickly after his account went live that he started getting friend requests. We looked at them together and decided together to approve them.

In upcoming posts, I’ll dive more deeply into the site and what your child can do there. If you’d like to sign up, please use my referral code, which just lets MomCentral know that you were referred by me. The code to enter is YSMC-0040.

disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in the Yoursphere Test Drive program by Mom Central on behalf of Yoursphere. I received a free lifetime Gold membership on Yoursphere.com, Yoursphere t-shirts, and a $50 American Express gift card to facilitate my review.