Social networking sites can be a lot of fun. College students like to use Facebook.com to connect and build relationships. Teenagers and young college students think Myspace.com is the place to be. Networking sites can also put you in contact with people who share similar interests or who are just plain interesting.

But, as with all great things, there is a darker, more sinister side. Predators lurk, hidden on these sites, ready to lure in unwitting teenagers. Content is posted that is inappropriate. Danger is around every corner…

However, some sites ARE trying to clean up social networking, while keeping it fun.

Facebook requires a school ID to peruse the profiles. You can’t even get on the site without this ID. Supersafe!

Mooble.com offers free memberships to their social networking website for adults AND teens. But, the fast growing site has the added benefit of protecting minors from material aimed only at adults.

They’ve taken a novel approach to adult content. Access to the adults-only material costs a small fee.

…a small price to pay to know that you don’t have to worry about whether or not the person you just met is really the age claimed. Besides, the annual access fee is quite small, considering it pays for a live person to view ALL submitted content for inappropriate content.

The effort that Mooble has put into making sure that kids are safe from inappropriate content, and that you are safe from an unpleasant surprise, is remarkable. In order to pay the fee for access to the adult content, the credit card used must be in the member’s name.

This is great because most kids under 18 do not have their own credit cards. Plus, there are many teens that would hesitate to take their parent’s credit card and then set up a profile in that parent’s name.

And, really, most of the time kids just happen upon adult content without meaning to do so. With a site like this, kids are protected, and you can still browse what you want to browse.

Another great thing about this whole Mooble idea is that it keeps kids safe from sexual predators. Social networking sites like myspace.com require that you be at least 16 to sign up. All the kids have to do is list their ages as 16 or older, even if they are not. There are literally thousands of teens and pre-teens that do not meet the My Space age requirements.

But they are on there, regardless, fudging their ages and are vulnerable to perverts who are out there looking for them. In fact, most pedophiles know, all they have to do to search for someone listing their age as 100, and nine times out of ten, it’s a youth.

Mooble does not have the same sort of problems because it actively tries to make it difficult for kids to have access to material suitable only for adults.

Keeping kids safe should be a high priority, and sites like Mooble and Facebook, that choose to draw the line between approved and unapproved use of adult content, provide an array of choices that can benefit both adults and kids.

Robyn Tippins is a freelance writer. See her blog at sleepyblogger.com.