Social media

[Danini]

How on earth do you protect your child from social media? Even if you limit their screen time, their class mates will have phones which you won't have any control over? There's so much crap out there! Makes me angry just to think that it's legal.

I completely agree, it has such a detrimental effect on mental health. Australia have banned it for children and I think we should do the same here.

I would download an app that blocks it, you can also block it on your WI-FI.

I work in social media and I keep a close eye on dd (11) and all her apps and games. I use family sharing to control the content she sees and her downtime and I look through her phone for weekly 'health checkups'
We have a 'real life friends only' policy for communicating in games and share a TikTok account (the only way I would allow it) and certain apps like Snapchat are absolutely not allowed. I'm considering taking her off WhatsApp as the absolute bilge her friends talk about is really quite demoralising to me. It is such a massive part of todays society though, I genuinely believe it's better for kids to know how to use this tech safely than not at all, but that's me

It's like a job monitoring it. Because I go through every single thing almost daily, my son's pretty good. He's only on WhatsApp. Any more is just too much to manage. He's at secondary school.

I always thought I'd stand firm against it all but once your kids this age and they're all communicating together on phone's it's isolation to keep them without one.

From my opinion, Snapchat is an absolute nightmare. Try just avoid it. It's not happening here for a few more years. WhatsApp is bad enough. We've already had dick pics and worse shared on a class group chat. Sick of it.

The amount of parent that have no clue what their kids are doing on the phone just enrages me. We all have to suffer because of it.

Just to add, we were having very detailed chats about the dangers of porn to the mind at an age much earlier than I would have liked. Being very open and discussing these things is the only defence against it unless you're not allowing phones etc

Too many parents let their children have apps which they are too young for. There is age guidance for a reason regardless of peer pressure. WhatsApp is minimum age 13 not primary or class WhatsApp for year 7 and 8.

Why is she on WhatsApp at age 11?

@Parker231 every single child in my son's class is on WhatsApp bar say about 4. Every member of the football teams he's part of via their own WhatsApp groups.

It is not helpful to condemn the poster for allowing her child on at 11. 11 was the age we got the phone and WhatsApp to enable communicating and setting up meet ups. My child is mature so has freedom to meet up and play football - all organized via WhatsApp. It's exhausting - yet scanned through everything every other day like we do ensures we see whats going on.

WhatsApp is the absolute least of the problems with these phones. The age 13 age minimum measures nothing to me. It still requires an intensive amount of monitoring.

Our local schools have all joined the Smartphone Free Childhood movement. A separate WhatsApp group for each school is set up and parents can opt to sign a pact not to buy their kids a smartphone for as long as possible. Local schools are also engaged to ensure a smartphone is not needed for homework etc.

If you don't need a smartphone for school and your friends don't have one, in theory, it should be easier to delay buying children a smartphone.

https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/

@zeddybrek such a good idea

If you don't need a smartphone for school and your friends don't have one, in theory, it should be easier to delay buying children a smartphone

exactly this. I resisted buying my dc a smartphone for starting secondary in year 7, despite everyone around me saying they had to have one. All good so far, I did get them a Nokia in the end but more for emergency calls, of which there’s been none. No pressure to join WhatsApp groups and all still as sociable as others.

I look at the news headlines tonight about the revolting case of the NI online abuser and my stomach turns, I wish parents would think twice about buying their child a smartphone. I saw a really good line in that campaign that stuck with me, pp- you’re not giving your child access to the internet, you’re giving the internet access to your child 😞

How do you share a TikTok account? Thank you

It’s a fine line I was a teenager in the late 70s and was the only kid in the class who didn’t have a TV
my parents were academics and when we finally got one we were allowed to watch “educational programs ‘ only unlike my classmates who got to watch what they wanted I remember feeling like a real outsider and felt ashamed that I wasn’t up-to date on all the ‘cool shows of the day”
maybe it’s important to not turn your kid into a social leper too !

Since it is practically everywhere, I think the best way to protect kids (aside from agreeing on boundaries like screen time and no social media until a certain age) is to equip them mentally with how to navigate it. Have open conversations about what to expect and to give them the media literacy needed to not fall for all the rubbish out there, so by the time they have social media they can be sharper and more aware... saved a post a while back that could help actually https://www.instagram.com/p/DIPNUT6TqsZ/?igsh=MXNleW53Y2hlcGFwcg==

Also important not to accept/believe things simply because they are in written text

By not buying my child a smartphone.