13 yr old son feels isolated

[Nicanne72]

I feel desperately sad for my son, who told me last night that he really struggles to mix with other boys at school. He thinks that it mainly stems from him not having a social media account and therefore not 'in the loop' with the goings on between other boys. I've always been very wary of letting him sign up to
Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat etc. We were up until 1.30am talking! He totally opened up about how lonely and isolated he feels and he was breaking his heart. I'm worried sick about him. I've told him to go ahead and sign up to maybe Instagram or Snapchat. I feel that by protecting him, I've also held him back and caused him problems with integrating with his peers.
Has anyone else been through this or similar situation?

I would let him on a “trial run” for maybe 1 hour a night (as a maximum) and if there aren’t any issues after say 6 weeks then you give him the go ahead to have one permanently

I think banning then from all social media will lead to them being isolated. Also, at 13 you really need to start trusting them a bit. He's not a baby anymore.

Let him sign up, make sure you know his password and just keep an occasional eye on what he's up to.

Thanks, he's going to try Instagram and Snapchat. I'll keep an eye and see how it goes.

thanks for your advice

I’m so happy you have worked it all out. 😃

Just make sure you have his log in as part of the deal so you monitor what being shared - or ask him to show you. Then you can step in at the first sign of inappropriate use.

Thanks for your suggestion 😊