It’s a common sense that kids, even though not legally allowed on most networks, are social networks heavy users. The problem with the major players is that they don’t offer any special safety for this audience or any extra tool for the parents to have some control on what their children are doing out there, obviously because kids shouldn’t be there and in fact their parents should be responsible if they are or not using it. But kids are born using computers, cellphones and all kind of devices that provide internet access and, as all other human beings, they have a need to interact with other human beings. We are social in our cores.
Since the internet itself is a place where they can find all kind of stuff and are already exposed to all sort of contents that you can (or cannot) imagine, why not provide then, at least, quality access to the social networks?
I know there are some really good social environments developed only for kids but that doesn’t fulfill their needs anymore. They wanna be where everybody is. They wanna “be cool” and they will always find a way to get in it even if they have to do more then “fake a birthdate”.
So my point is that the big social networks should think about this audience and find ways to provide a safer environment with specific content and also parental control tools. This wouldn’t be good only for kids and their parents, this will be the best way for the social networks themselves to strengthen their brands among new generations. And it will be a way, at least to try, to provide a more qualified content and experience for the little ones.

Just as a curiosity check out the top 10 social networks:

#1 - Facebook
#2 - MySpace
#3 - Bebo
#4 - Friendster
#5 - hi5
#6 - Orkut
#7 - PerfSpot
#8 - Zorpia
#9 - Netlog
#10 - Habbo

And here are a few social networks for kids:

Poptropica.com (76 million users)
Neopets.com (54 million users)
ClubPenguin.com (28 million users)
Migux.com.br (5 million users in Brazil) – I developed this one long ago