First smart phone, what apps and social media to allow?

[tinkerbellesslagoon]

Those who allow their younger teens to have a smartphone…

what apps and social media do you allow/not allow?

My DS 13 has mentioned ‘everyone’ has Snapchat, is this safe?

Can anyone recommend anything to help make his phone ‘safe’ as possible? I’m rubbish with technology so don’t know where to begin.

thanks in advance

Personally I don't understand why anyone would allow Snapchat. In my experience, for adults, it was popular for sexting hence the disappearing feature.Why would it be necessary for a child to have a messaging app for pictures and videos where no record of the chat would be saved? 😕

Would you be checking their phone / have any parental locks in place as that might be easier than deciding app to app as they all vary so much in their content and safety features.

Thanks for the reply!
I’ve never used Snapchat so not sure what it’s like.
parental locks sound good but where do you begin with that?

Main thing is to lock down the App Store so no apps can be installed without a password. Then you can control what your child is installing. This can be done in settings.

Thanks
should I just set it up with my own Apple ID from my smart phone?

The most effective way for me was discussing social media with my teens before they got phones. The school they were at also did a great job of talking about safety online. Rather than specific apps I find it better to talk about how they will engage online and remind them that unless they know someone personally irl they have no idea if what they are being told is true.

We didn't post their faces online ourselves until they were old enough to use social media and asked their consent before we posted anything after that. Any app can be used for bullying or by predators which is why I think a good framework for social media use is important.

There's a thing called the Google Family App that apparently lets you control the ting remotely and switch off its internet connection etc. not sure how effective it is or whether it works well or not- we haven't succumbed yet!

You can create a child's Apple ID linked to your own and then manage the parental controls via the Family section of settings.

I wouldn’t. Social media can be a cruel thing, especially when young teenagers are involved and I’m pretty sure a lot of the social media sites have a minimum age (I know not many people follow them). I’ve heard of so many tragic cases including teenagers being killed over disputes on social media, teenagers accidentally killing themselves following stupid trends and games on there, teenagers killing themselves over bullying on there - it’s not worth the risk IMO.

Snapchat is one of the worst! Also TikTok. Personally I wouldn't put any social media on at all.

luna period tracker ("we are luna") is a pretty cool app for teens with loads of other features where your teen can learn about health and wellbeing. dd 14 been using it for a year and she's having fun with it and it's totally safe x