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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How to get your 12 year old to understand 14K likes is NOT good

76 replies

Phoenix4 · 24/04/2019 13:13

On discovering my daughter has just started sharing an account with her friend on tiktok (lip sync vids) who is publicly posting

OP posts:
pikapikachu · 24/04/2019 16:51

TikTok is considered so unsafe for kids that in the US, kids have to upload their photo ID to prove that they are over 13. I sympathize with the difficulties of keeping kids safe online but TikTok is one of the worst apps. Google and you'll see that I'm not scaremongering- paedos can openly leave vile comments and not get banned.

Phoenix4 · 24/04/2019 16:56

If I had my way she wouldn’t ever have had a phone or the internet until much later, certainly not before 13. I would have continued to let her use my laptop for homework and that would have been it. Phone also might have been acceptable once started at secondary school but not internet access. However, I am divorced, she lives with her Dad half the time and I have no control during these times....and his parents bought her a phone with internet access for Christmas when she was 8 which he/they have continued to keep updating. I continue to try and monitor successfully through keeping her close emotionally, able to talk about anything...and allowing it here so I know whats going on with her fully. I am pulling hair out here!.. sadly we dont live in an ideal world so we all need help to deal with the situations we find ourselves in...please

OP posts:
Babuchak · 24/04/2019 16:56

We can not stop our children using these apps

of course you can.. you are the parent, you make the rule!

Phoenix4 · 24/04/2019 16:57

She is 12

OP posts:
MadAboutWands · 24/04/2019 16:58

Or you can involve the school.

At my dcs primary, they’ve made quite a few talks around u entrent and some site because if behaviours like this (and bullying over Instagram etc...)

PatriciaHolm · 24/04/2019 16:58

12 is plenty old enough to understand exactly what a predator is!

Try looking at some of this with her.

www.thinkuknow.co.uk/11_13/Need-advice/

RomanyQueen1 · 24/04/2019 17:01

if you don't want her to know about predators keep her off the internet.
yes you can do this, it's your job to educate her, not put her in danger because you refuse to be there or cba to parent

TheInebriati · 24/04/2019 17:01

My daughter does not as yet understand what exactly a predator IS and I do not want her to know it for as long as possible either! this is the point.

You may feel like you are preserving her innocence, but it is for your benefit, not hers.

pikapikachu · 24/04/2019 17:01

Sorry that I got her age wrong. I'm shocked that she's 12 and not heard of Internet "weirdos"

Phoenix4 · 24/04/2019 17:05

Thanks! We have already used this together but it would be beneficial to revisit in the light of recent events

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Dressless · 24/04/2019 17:05

The whole not allowing kids will make them do x more and unsafely argument is a bit silly. Replace the apps with weed or sex or cigarettes. Not a rational argument. You absolutely can stop her using it if you want to but if you don’t want to you just have to accept she’ll be exposed to all the dodgy stuff going on on the app.

pikapikachu · 24/04/2019 17:06

My son is 12 (y8) and definitely had a talk about sexting and sending/asking for nudes.

Dressless · 24/04/2019 17:06

Also it’s a bit dangerous not to teach her about predatory behaviour

bsc · 24/04/2019 17:11

You can stop her. You don't want to.

Take away her smart phone and make her use a brick phone with no camera. Restrict what sites she accesses at home. Parent her.

You sound like you just want to be cool, and let her have fun, but this isn't innocent fun.

You need to educate yourself and your daughter about online safety.

ReanimatedSGB · 24/04/2019 17:16

Oh Waa, waa, fucking waa. Teach your kids basic safety like not giving out their contact details and accept that they are not your property.

canadianbanana · 24/04/2019 17:21

If she has 14K likes, it is obviously not private. And yes, we CAN stop our children from using these apps. Tell she can’t use it, tell her why and if her friends drop her because she can’t use this one app, they aren’t worth having. I’m guessing their parents aren’t monitoring their children’s use of this app either.

AlwaysaLittleBitTired · 24/04/2019 17:24

OP - same situation here, my DD12 also shares an account with a friend but shows only random 'aesthetic' videos (as they call them), and not images of themselves. Her other account is private, and I subscribe to both on my account (which I had to create for monitoring).

I share the view that prohibiting access, when all the other children are doing it, will be unnecessarily problematic. I would rather she learn these new social media skills whilst still relatively innocent, and use whatever safeguards there are available alongside a healthy awareness of the dangers. Hopefully she will get into to acceptable habits. Hmm

We were lucky not to have all of this around when we were children, but our DC are growing up with this and my fear was that they don't keep up with the technology or risk awareness.

For our family, I have made it plain to my DC that if they have access to this stuff then I have full access to their devices at all times. I need them to know that I trust them to monitor what is happening and to tell me of anything uncomfortable that happens (which so far seems to be juvenile friendship issues/minor bullying issues which have been called out). I appreciate that they will have secrets (didn't we all), and that they are at risk of seeing things they shouldn't, but to my mind this is an essential life skill best learned as soon as they're ready.

As for persuading them that number of likes is not a good thing, I just keep banging on that same drum in the hope that it eventually gets through that their self-worth is not determined by something that isn't real.

Good luck.

Missingstreetlife · 24/04/2019 17:42

I don't want my child to know that cars are dangerous so I never taught them to cross the road safely, never taught them about tooth decay so they don't clean their teeth. Ffs. She's plenty old enough to know about child abuse. Knowledge is power, its naive and vulnerable kids who get targeted first. She could be abused by real life people too, not just wankers on internet

Missingstreetlife · 24/04/2019 17:45

does her dad know? Has he no sense, can you share your concerns with him?

Hecateh · 24/04/2019 18:03

Whilst it is relatively easy to monitor certain aspects of kids online it isn't possible to monitor everything they do unless all parents are on exact;y the same page and we all know they are not.

Even if all parents had some sort of monitoring in place we would be part way there but some just don't bother.
Outright banning something is rarely a good move because if the child does manage to get round it, be at someone else's house or wherever, and they come across something disturbing they are not going to talk to you about it. Far better to have a monitored situation with open chats about the fact that there are some strange people on the net who aren't who they say they are and for them to feel they are able to check with you without a big deal being made of it if something seems a bit off. This is a better way of helping them learn to cope and be independent without putting them at risk

hettie · 24/04/2019 18:05

In the nicest possible way there is nothing, literally nothing a 12 yr old is missing out on in terms of positive development/social skills because they are not on tiktok or Instagram or Tumblr....As for the 'having to learn social media skills' your kidding right? Do you think people wilt and die, are unable to have a job/friends/a life if they don't/can't use social media? You really have fallen for the mega corporate marketing lines that somehow all this crap is necessary haven't you? All of them are competing for your/ you're kids attention so that they can advertise to you-that's it. It's not an essential industry or skill in anyway just a massive newer form if media and advertising. Plus it takes probably what a day to 'learn' how to use social media for a reasonably intelligent literate 14, 16, 24 or 44 year old. We don't need to teach 12 year olds to use them, nor do they need exposure to them and all the problematic crap that comes along with it.

GottaGetUp · 24/04/2019 18:12

If you really can’t stop her using the app, then you have to fully explain the risks she is facing. I don’t know how else you can possibly explain why 14k likes is not good.

justasking111 · 24/04/2019 18:34

Oh I would be a devious mare and put the phone in the oven I think. It was a silly present.

Phoenix4 · 24/04/2019 21:51

I continue to do my best to help my daughter develop into an assured independently minded and individual adult. I have now sourced some internet info for her to read after school 1. about tiktok..2.what predatory behaviours are and 3.the excellent thinkuknow, then we will discuss it again. Thanks for the supportive messages folks🖖🏽

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Missingstreetlife · 25/04/2019 15:50

Talk to her dad or gp, unless they are boneheads they must see the problem?