To not let my 12 year old have Snapchat?

[TheGhostsOfMeAndYou]

Am I the completely unreasonable and awful parent my child is making me out to be for making her be the only child in her whole school not to have Snapchat?

Any other parents guilt of making their child miss out?

YANBU to not let your 12 year old have Snapchat. You have to be 13 to use it.

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Yep... this is from their website: Teens must be at least 13 to create a Snapchat account. If we become aware that an account belongs to a person under 13, we terminate their account from the platform and delete their data.

It's critical that your teen signs up with an accurate birthday, so they can benefit from our safety protection for teens. To help prevent teens from circumventing these safeguards, we don't allow 13-17-years-olds with existing Snapchat accounts to change their birth year to an age of 18 or above.

YANBU

Awful app which causes loads of problems for teens and pre-teens.

This.

Don't do it. The more parents that say no, the more chance we have of reclaiming our teens mental health.

I'm hoping to get my kids to 16 without any social media..

Do not let them. Keep them away as long as possible. Even if you are the bad guy

Stand your ground. I have an 17 DD and 20DS and they are grateful I stopped / protected them.

Of course she's not the only one who doesn't have it. That line has been trotted out by every teen since time began.

I told mine I don't parent by committee so didn't care what other parents did. This wasn't related to SM but everything.

Yanbu

Can anyone say why please.
My dd wants it

I hope you succeed. My one is 11, allowed only roblox and certain youtube videos through my account, always in the living room. No devices in bedrooms

Yanbu

Perhaps share your child the news today regarding poor Semina Halliwell. She was targeted by her abuser initially via Snapchat.

I work in education. This is known for being the most dangerous social media app for children.

Mine know they will not be getting this app.

You need to be very firm on this.

YANBU - it’s a dangerous, toxic app that does little except cause trouble with teens.

DD is 14 and we don't allow Snapchat. Apparently I am the worst mother in the world. But... we've had no issues with online bullying yet. She does use Tick Tock and Instagram but only to watch videos. She watches too many videos and spends too long on her phone but Snapchat is a red line for me.

Also on Smart Free Phone Childhood ( check out their instagram) there is an excellent response by a parent to a child why they are not allowed Snapchat.

Because it was originally created for sexting because the messages disappear very quickly. In reality what happened in schools was that teens then took maybe more risks than they would otherwise with what they sent picturewise thinking it would disappear, but in reality one of their mates would stand ready with their phone to take a photo of the pic and circulate it. This was in the early days of Snapchat but I doubt it has improved. The risks are greater for bullying and inappropriate images etc when people don't think there will be a consequence as the evidence will disappear. The police can recover anything sent but its better not to.have your yp in that position in the first place. My teen isn't allowed it.

And it is one ceop have always been particularly concerned about and would flag it up regularly. Again I doubt that has changed.

YANBU. I hate that app it's the worst one, it's too dangerous and damaging for teens to be on.

The whole idea is that messages are only visible for a very short time and then disappear. If you are sending nice polite messages then you don’t need this feature. It’s an ideal breeding ground for bullying and unkindness.

The ‘short life’ of the messages also gives children a false sense of security and there have been issues with people sending messages that they think will vanish, but that are then screen-shotted and shared. Particularly an issue with indecent images being encouraged / shared.

I have three DDs, 12, 14 and 16. None of them have Snapchat. There's no need. Be strong. Your DD's friends will message her in other ways, she won't miss out. Your kids know what they want, but you, as the adult, know what they need (or don't need!) xx

Me too!

eldest is 12 - I’m holding firm so far
we’ve had lots of chats about why. I’ve been very clear and firm from the get go about it; I know she doesn’t agree with me but she isn’t arguing with me too much thankfully: her little sister will be a different story so I’m bracing myself!

I mean of all the social media I can’t think of a worse one for potentially bullying than snap chat