To not let 13 year old have TT or SC

With snap chat I downloaded myself first. I have set the family setting. Have an agreement of I can check my DD's phone anytime (she's very good anyway). The family setting is really good and has a sensitive filter on. Before I let her have it I did use it myself for a week with my husband. She mostly uses the funny filters tbh. I have said no huge group chats. These tend to be where things go wrong. It's been fine and she's had it a couple of months now. Any issues I have known of myself have been ones that were set up and not had the right age inserted and parental settings.

At the end of the day it's your choice which social apps your child has access to. I would say that SC imo is no different to what's app other than the filters. They have better settings than a few years ago apparently.

The only person my Ds WhatsApp’s is me ..he is 17…

your Ds will be seeing TT any way .. you will have no idea what - it’s on his mates phone’ .. Teach him how to use it safely .

i hate snap chat … however set boundaries .. yes they might message on WhatsApp .. but get him to use these safely .. if he sees something on these platforms that upsets him .. he won’t share with you .

None of my dc have sm . And I have spoken to them openly about the reasons for this.
It is not needed by any stretch. They are not missing out on anything!
But what they are missing is the chances of seeing things they shouldn't. Being exposed to things they should not . And risk of being bullied or harassed by weirdos.
Name one actual plus side to social media?
It's a sad life if we measure a teenagers happiness by apps on a phone!

Our 14 and 12 year olds have WA but no SM, they are happier for it… they’ll still keep up with the latest est ‘trends’ via friends.
Hold out as long as you can -

Only on page 4 and already this thread is giving me the rage.
We need to teach young children to spot predators online? Are you fucking serious?? They are extremely open to being manipulated and you cannot watch or check everything they exchange on platforms like SC.

Aside from this, it isn’t just the potential issue of paedophiles. It’s well known that the way these apps run is terrible for developing brains. They zap attention spans and are extremely addictive. The constant dopamine hits are not good plus there is the small matter of what the kids aren’t doing while they are glued to their phones - I.e. not interacting with each other in the real world. There is a reason why the people responsible for creating these apps will not let their own kids use them.

I honestly thought that there was more awareness about this stuff now and I suspect the ones are are vehemently FOR giving this stuff to kids have already done and are burying their heads in the sand about the potential repercussions.

I thought it was well documented and understood now that the massive uptick in MH issues in adolescents directly corresponds with the rise of SM use.

SC is a completely different kind of platform to WhatsApp and it isn’t just a messaging platform. WhatsApp is really purely messaging and great for group chats and all the information remains in the chat unless manually deleted so it’s good for chatting over a period of time and you can easily add photos or videos but you can’t do video editing in WhatsApp and it doesn’t have gifs and animated captions or half the editing options of SC. It’s very staid and basic but does the job it does well. Good for video chats too.

SC is why Reels and Stories got added to Insta to try to pull users away from SC. You can record stuff in your day and post it to your story and it will stay there for 24 hours for your friends to see. That’s what you post to your profile and your friends who follow you can see that content. The messaging side is separate and it’s good for messaging back and forth with photos or videos because the User Interface is set up to do that in a way that WhatsApp isn’t since WhatsApp is primarily a text messaging platform. However on the messaging on SC, you can only replay a video once unless you pay and a photo message will disappear unless saved in the chat. That’s what makes it such a dangerous platform and why kids shouldn’t be on it because it’s easier to bully and encourage inappropriate behaviour but of course all the platforms make that possible and no teen should have unmonitored or unguided access to social media.

SC like TikTok and Instagram has the ability to edit videos within the App. There are templates to help
you and animated gifs to add, animated captions and you can be really creative with it but TikTok is pretty much leading at the moment as a content creation platform and the content in general is much more varied and there’s more quality content available. Of course it also has lots of crazy filters which SC also has but WhatsApp doesn’t. Instagram also has lots of good content but there’s more academically rich content on TikTok - professors talking about their research etc which I don’t see so much of on Instagram - although some things like the Wes Anderson filming craze (my cat if it was in a Wes Anderson movie or arctic explorers if they were in a Wes Anderson movie etc) crossed over both TikTok and Insta.

For teens who are considering film making or photography or something creative, then starting out making short videos on TikTok and Instagram and now Shorts on YouTube is a fantastic place to learn. TikTok has lots of great learning content for would-be film editors.

it’s a nightmare though at the moment to help keep kids safe on social media. My daughters kept their profiles private and only allowed followers who they already knew in real life. Would definitely not allow SC and try to encourage all teens away from it.

17yo DD has full access to her phone, so can use whatever apps she wants. Her and her friends almost exclusively use Whatsapp. They've all got snapchat, and I'm sure they use it occasionally, but for day to day communication ,Whatsapp it is.

So does mine and she doesn't use WhatsApp at all for her friends, just for her sports team group chat. For her friends they all use instagram messenger.

"5 Steps to Staying Safe on Snapchat Every Parent Should Know - Child Rescue Coalition" https://childrescuecoalition.org/educations/5-steps-to-staying-safe-on-snapchat/

Sheesh

Snapchat is more pictorial. WhatsApp more informative for groups. It depends on your needs in the moment if you're a teenager.

A lot of parents and teaching staff are kicking back.

I wouldn’t allow it at that age. One of my sons has very reluctantly just gone on SC and that’s because he’s started Uni and doesn’t want to be out of the loops. 13 is too young, as far as I know your whereabouts are there for everyone to see.

I neither agree nor disagree about your SC ban (each to their own) but you can’t base your decision by downloading it to your phone and seeing the feed you get. It’s a far cleverer app than that.

I’m rubbish with tech and don’t know exactly how it works, but it can see all the contacts on your phone. It cross references those contacts against their data in terms of what those contacts look at on their SC feeds and then feeds you similar content. It will do that until you start engaging with the app and then it will learn the stuff that you pause on and rewatch or share and will adapt what it feeds you to make it specific to what you like to watch.

Essentially, you as an adult, will be fed very different content to your 13 year old.

17yo DD has full access to her phone, so can use whatever apps she wants. Her and her friends almost exclusively use Whatsapp. They've all got snapchat, and I'm sure they use it occasionally, but for day to day communication ,Whatsapp it is.

Some facts about Snapchat….

No not really, I was trying to get you to understand that it isn’t just your view that should be considered.

You have been aggressive, personal and argumentative. The statement isn’t wrong as it’s an opinion. Crack a book and maybe see that opinions aren’t right or wrong. You aren’t right just because that is what you think - but neither am I. Why come on here if you just want to argue with people who don’t see exactly what you see. Also, while you are there why not google TT and SNapchat numbers because of no one is using them then numbers will be low.

Why have all his mates got Snapchat? It’s a messaging platform. Maybe they use WhatsApp for your son because they are aware he doesn’t have it.

It isn’t nonsense if it’s true to someone else. Just because it isn’t your experience doesn’t make it nonsense. Your point is nonsense actually.

Your narrow minded view won’t help you as he gets older and kids use other social media platforms.

Things are changing, but it is taking time. Anyone with teens now is in the peak and the thick of it, and that is why posters are getting so defensive and derogatory about op's perfectly reasonable stance. They can't see how things could be different or a teen could possibly operate without social media.

I do not envy anyone with secondary age kids at this time, but I have little time for those that don't even acknowledge there is a problem with how things are currently. It goes well beyond the most serious abuse cases to the fact that everyone is just becoming more and more addicted to staring at screens (adults included) and it is affecting how the children given phones are developing. It is affecting our teens safety and sex lives as aggressive porn is totally accessible as the norm. How can people not care? This goes beyond just your own child. Those that think sm is a bit of harmless fun are frankly deluded and ill informed. No one will successfully 'learn to manage' these apps, as they are purposefully designed to be addictive and will no doubt become more so.

Many of us have had enough, and things are changing, but it will take time. I have a young tween and am not looking forward to navigating this next stage at all.

I'm confused by people saying children need smartphones and constant access to apps to learn about internet safety and the world though. We started discussing this years ago and will continue to do so whether or not they have a smartphone or the various sm apps. It's possible to have access without having them in your pocket 24/7.

I will certainly be holding off for as long as possible in all areas smartphone related. But we also need to live in the world we're in, so creative solutions and constant open communication is going to be needed. I'm
sure it will be very messy getting through it. But just handing over access is not the answer.

My DS is Y9. No SC. No TT.

His friends don't have them either. Just WhatsApp.

They spend their time together either out and about or social gaming, not sitting watching video clips.

And if someone takes the piss out of him for not having social media accounts then they says more about his friends being twats.

My DC's primary school did a talk to parents about it so I am aware. DD8 plays it on the computer in the living room with us and DH put the settings on to not allow any social communication through it.

I didn’t say they should. I simply said it’s how many, many of them communicate. I’m a secondary teacher. It’s just a fact.

I disagree Snapchat is just used by teenage girls. It’s used by teens as a dating app. So both sexes.