Is this just what happens now with young people?

[Omega8]

My 11 year old niece had her first kiss last week. Apparently she was so excited and told her mum all about it and showed her a video her friend took of the ‘big moment’ on her phone. This video was on Snapchat and has been sent round a lot of her school friends, and has made its way to WhatsApp.
my sister said this is what they are all doing now, recording their first hug or kiss with a boy and niece thought nothing of this and has shown my sister videos of all her friends doing this.
maybe I’m old school but I’m horrified at this? Surely kids should know this isn’t ok? My niece had made sure her friend was recording it and was proud of herself.
My sister is wondering how to best handle this, is this something that niece should be punished got or just a lesson to learn?

This sounds like one of those things that kids find cute and sweet, and then ends up in the wrong hands. I don't think it's something that needs punishing per se, especially if she thought it was normal, but probably a conversation about digital footprint and not being able to take this kind of thing back might be in order.

In my experience, absolutely it isn’t the norm, but maybe we have different sorts of kids. They do have ‘boyfriends’ or ‘girlfriends’ but in name only and it lasts like 2 weeks before they all get bored. My dc do not have WhatsApp or Snapchat anyway. But no, I don’t think she should be punished, but does need a serious conversation about internet safety. And the video needs to be deleted for everyone from whatever platforms she has sent it on (obviously you can’t control if others have sent it on).

Def not the norm in my experience. The videoing and sharing it around is not what happens at my kids school

This is why she is meant to be 13 to use SM. If mum is happy for her to have SC them this is what will happen.

Niece will know that she isn't meant to do X, Y, Z, schools are hot on safe use of internet even if the parents are not. Whether niece actually listens and puts into practise what's she's been taught is a separate issue.

I remember people having their first kiss behind the school canteen (in 2002) and other people gathering round to watch like it was a Gladiator arena or something, then passing the news of who kissed who at that lunchtime like it was the 5 o'clock news, so this doesn't sound that strange to me, if not a bit weird in a high school way haha.

Your sister may want to reconsider whether her daughter is mature enough to use social media and whether she understands the implications of sharing personal content like that.

An 11 year old should not have Snapchat.
Kids this age are not mature enough.

Separate question, but what boy in his right mind is willing to go along with this? And how old is he? This does not sound like any 11 year old boy I know.

11 year olds shouldn't have Snapchat because this proves they are too immature to realise the implications of what they post and share with others. Once something has been shared you can't get it back.