Instagram

[skillsandtea]

DS(11) has asked if he can have an Instagram account. He has an iPod but no other social media accounts and hasn't shown much interest before. He says his friends have accounts. I'm fairly clued up on social media and do a bit but I don't know why he'd need it. What would he share pictures of? He's a bit cagey about most stuff. Do any of your similarly aged DSes use it and if so, what for?

My 12 yo dd has it. She uses it a lot. I make sure she doesn't have location on, doesn't use her real name and oy follows/is followed by people she knows. (Except slebs. She's always posting stuff to Jamie Oliver.)

They message on it and send ENDLESS duckface photos.

Lots of cat photos, and yy to duckfaces

Trying not to sound clueless but what is a duckface?

It seems to be what DD and all her friends use to communicate - they are year 7, so aged 11/12. When DS was that age it was all Facebook. They post pictures they've taken, re-post cute pictures from elsewhere, and use it for messaging.

Like any kind of social media, you need to keep an eye on it when they start out - check security settings are tight, make sure they don't accept random people as followers, have a look at what sort of conversations they are having on there etc.

Duckface is that weird pouty face a lot of teen/preteen girls put on to pose for photos.

Why can't they stay little an innocent forever? I guess I'm going to have to give in - albeit with very strict rules.

Perplexed about the photos of doorframes?

We've just allowed dd (11) on it. What an eye opener I had no idea some of her friends were so much more precocious and streetwise than her... They are all madly following each other/sharing duckface photos/chain letters about who fancies who etc etc. It mainly seems to be the 'popular' set at dd's school so far, she is bored with it already as she has no desire to go out with boys yet or wear make up. It seems to be quite open to insults/back handed compliments and I would rather it wasn't available but fear saying no marks her out as different...
I'm very glad social media wasn't around when I was growing up, god knows what teenage crime would be following me around now!

My 11 year old DD has instagram...its basically about duckface selfies (pouting), memes, cat and disney pics and food pics. It's the main way she and her friends communicate and she spends a lot of time on it.