To not let 13 year old have TT or SC

Why are you trying to pretend that there is a fix to this? There isn’t. All I’ve got from you is your children are grown up so you don’t actually have a clue to be fair.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2024/oct/26/ai-child-sexual-abuse-images-kaylin-hayman

My 13 year old doesn't have TT/SC nor Insta, she asked I said no. Had she argued we would have sat and looked at all the evidence about how its harmful and also attempted to find some evidence that its beneficial and the discussed it. Some of her friends mums allow it, some don't.

Good for you OP.

FGS stand your ground on this one. TT and SC are horrendous.

If your child was saying “but muuuuuum everyone is getting their tongue pierced/getting a tattoo on their face/shagging behind the bike sheds” would you be questioning giving in to them? Why is a phone app open to the entire internet and all the crap on it somehow better? Safety features on either of those apps are basically non-existent no matter what the advertising might try to say. Just look at the horrible garbage that pops up on here or any given FB thread regularly, even when there are active moderators trying to shut it down.
13 year olds aren’t exactly famed for their good judgement and yes I do recall how much of an idiot I was at that age.

Kids get addicted to SC. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard pupils saying "But I'll lose my streak!"

No we are. Really. There’s national wide campaigns now in nurseries and early years across the country for parents to agree not to have these devices going forward in primary and secondary’s for their cohorts.

The only reason currently is so kids aren’t left out. If we remove that issue then there’s no problem.

I didn't mean ban phones as in go back to writing letters to one another. But if either nobody or not many in your class (my kids attend a one form per year school) has a smart phone, then are you really missing out?

When children need more independence then a non-smart phone will do the job.

@Sometimeswinning
Why are you trying to pretend that children are not at serious risk of harm?

I think at 13 TT and SC are ok to have. I hate both but youve got to let them live a little. Imo TT is full of inappropriate stuff and also cringeworthy silly dances that people will regret in years to come. SC, as long as privacy is locked down, youve had the chat etc about talking to strangers, sharing personal info/pictures etc, then its how teens communicate.

Yeah my 16 yr old has Instagram. Private account
We had the snap chat isn't safe chat at least 4 times this year. I've told her when she's working, paying for her own phone etc then she can have SC

Your children are adults? You maybe a tad out of touch with things now then.

Yes I have a toddler. We are all signing mandates at nursery stage! I think our generation is going to be quite tight with this.

As an aside I do think Instagram is one of the safest platforms. I would have much less issue with that.

I feel the algorithm is particularly good. I have a number of different accounts for different interests and the algorithms stay very tight to those topics which I appreciate greatly.

I would have less of an issue with a private monitored insta account. So maybe that’s a compromise to consider.

I really don't think parents in your children's school are going to listen to you about that. How exactly do you plan to make them ban phone? You are only going to embarrass your child.

Banning social media is fine but banning all phones is just silly

I've already recounted this on Mumsnet: I had two 13 yr old female pupils who were convinced that they were communicating with an 11 yr old boy called Tommy. In actual fact, their "friend" was an adult predator.

Social media is fast becoming the downfall of mankind. It utterly poisons children's minds, and alters them for the worse.

There'll be no social media or any touchscreen devices in our household. I'm going to get as many parents in my kids' classes at school as I can to abstain from buying phones for as long as possible. Smart phone free childhoods will make for happy children.

@Sometimeswinning
My children are adults. You have no need to have faux concern about them.

SC is very dangerous. It's used both by school bullies and by adult predators.

Calm down. You protect your child and then randomly introduce them one day to the world of social media. It’s dodgy.

My children know what’s ok and what’s not. I’d be more concerned for your child not having a clue, than my child who knows how to navigate it all.

I really don't think enough parents are aware of just how much social media affects brain development, and alters the brain's physiology.

I don’t know anything about Snapchat but I don’t even think adults should have tiktok. It’s in some worse than X

OP it is not possible to monitor Snap. Good on you for protecting your DS 👏 He will not be left behind 100%. 13 years is young to have a phone, let alone navigate platforms that are set up to make them addictive. I admire you for taking these steps. (Much easier to give in).

My youngest now 23 has two nephews. He says snap chat and tik tok shouldn't be on phones for youngsters. He was absolutely adamant that they were bad news. He's not keen on Roblox either.

Mine don't have it either. They are 14 and 11. I see far too much drama caused by Snapchat at my school and between my daughter's friends. She has definitely been better off out of it.

They have WhatsApp and their friends use they too so they don't miss out.

It's obviously good to keep your children safe, I'm just saying you don't always know what they're doing on what they're on. When mine got Snapchat I hadn't even heard of it tbh, I only found out later. I don't know when they joined. You could ban it, but all it would take is for them to delete it from their phone screen when they wanted to. I'm just throwing some thoughts out there, because my youngest is over 16 anyway so it's not really as issue for me personally anymore.