Two Marlborough primary school principals are worried some of their pupils have signed up to social networking site Facebook.
Both Havelock and Blenheim School reminded parents in their latest newsletters that the site had an age restriction of 13, and there were potential risks for young people on such sites.
Havelock School principal Chris Duckworth found some of his older pupils when he was on the website a few weeks ago and was able to see some of their personal information.
Mr Duckworth was worried the children had not set appropriate privacy settings on their profiles and urged parents to either remove their child's profile from the site or check their page.
Havelock School blocked access to Facebook on its computers, he said.
The site was good for keeping in touch with family and friends, but was not a site aimed at children. Young children could easily be "sucked in" by older people, he said.
Blenheim School principal Dina Ahradsen was aware some of her students had joined Facebook, but was not against young children being on the site if monitored by their parents.
Some parents may have signed their children up for the site without being aware of the potential dangers, she said.
"It's a huge, big wide world they're stepping into ... it can be quite dangerous," she said.
"I'm not against families doing what they think is appropriate, but I would like to remind parents to be proactive."
Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker said he understood why children would sign up to Facebook, but did not think it was a good idea.
It was easy for children to lie about their age when signing up to websites, he said.
"Age verification is not successfully done anywhere on the web. Many young people have the ability to lie about their age," he said.
The risks for children on the site were the same as any situation where children were placed in an adult environment, he said.
"There are plenty of people who will mean harm to them," he said.
Netsafe's website says Facebook's code of conduct protects users from sexual content, harassment and unwanted contact as well as other offensive acts. Guidelines on how to deal with such abuse can be found at netsafe.org.nz.
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