Even though kids technically aren’t allowed to open a Facebook account until they’re 13—and many parents forbid it for years after that—tweens are finding more avenues to connect online. Take 12-year-old Celina McPhail, for instance. With Facebook out of the question, Celina and her friends gravitate toward free online programs Instagram and Versagram. With popular social networking sites off the menu, mother Maria McPhail admits kids are “good at finding ways around that.” Much of that connectivity is possible because kids own cell phones at ever younger ages: About 15 percent of children under age 11 have their own mobile, according to eMarketer, and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project tells us that 16 percent of youth between the ages of 12 and 17 use Twitter. While all this connectivity has kids excited, many adults worry. It’s not just bullying and predators they’re concerned about, but the knowledge that these youth are creating their own digital footprints—footprints, that if they make a misstep, can be awfully difficult to erase. (Wall Street Journal)