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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

What social media does your teen have?

8 replies

Piscesmumma1978 · 26/04/2024 08:41

I have 13 and 15yo dds. I’m just wondering what others allow. Snapchat is a no for us.

OP posts:
Pozz · 26/04/2024 08:43

14 year old has

WhatsApp
Pinterest
Minecraft

That's it. Definitely not snap chat.

Needmorelego · 26/04/2024 08:47

Define "social media".
Mine uses Discord and WhatsApp but it's just conversation (I monitor it - it's a lot of analysing TV shows and giggling about rude memes).
That's different to watching influencers on tiktok or whatever.

GaraMedouar · 26/04/2024 08:57

13 year old has WhatsApp and Minecraft.
But no Snapchat, no Facebook, no Instagram, no TikTok , no Twitter - …. Or anything else that comes up that I don’t currently know the name of!

NahNeedsGarlic · 26/04/2024 08:58

Discord, WhatsApp, Minecraft.

Piscesmumma1978 · 26/04/2024 09:38

Sorry, should have said more. As in Facebook, instagram, TikTok, Snapchat etc.

I’m struggling a bit with continuing to stop them but all of their friends have it. I’ve just removed 15yo dds Snapchat again.

They have WhatsApp

OP posts:
Iritatedbyarguingmn · 26/04/2024 09:49

initially mine just had what’s app , it became apparent though that the vast majority of their friends were using snap chat to communicate. My older DS has had Snapchat since about 12/13 . My younger had it at 11 , we had an issue with a boy spreading untrue rumours so deleted it . Younger DS moved schools and I allowed him to download it again then - 13 . So far so good .

For mine it’s important to know what’s going on and to chat outside school . The eldest (15) is quite quiet and shy and doesn’t socialise much . 13year old is a different character .

They both know what not to do and what we expect from them , they also know to come to me with any problem ( it was DS1 that came to me when DS2 was being picked on )

You know your 15 year old best but I would give him a chance unless you already have concerns about behaviour

edit to say no TikTok or instagram here - TikTok they’ve never had it - just see what their friends share .Insta they’re quite private and not big picture boys

Soigneur · 26/04/2024 09:54

13yo has Whatsapp to chat with friends and family. Not interested in anything else.

RamblingEclectic · 26/04/2024 11:30

My older son had instagram at 14 when he was doing a photography courses that used it as part of showing their work, though hasn't used it in a while, and switched mostly to Discord. Him getting instagram at 14 lead to a rule that at 14 they could pick one social media, but it ended up with my second that her friends found this idea fascinating and basically tried to sway her choice by saying what was wrong with the different sites & apps so she ended up not picking any for months as her friends made them all sound like awful, glitchy time sucks. She got with Discord around the same time as her brother so we could do a family server.

Getting Discord does comes with regular chats about scams and issues going through there. At 14 year old, it's only the family server and clubs they attend in person - my current 14 year old has the school D&D club. The ones 16+ have other servers.

They also use youtube, but don't make any content on it.

My oldest (now 19) is on a few hobby webforums that work much like social media, and last year got Whatsapp for work. I was expecting my 17 year old to follow suit when she started her apprenticeship, but her workplace uses email for everything - something about it being easier to put virus protection and similar on there - so she's got her email app on her phone going off instead.

Oh, and my kids have Family Link on their phones, and all but the oldest have it so any apps require an adult to approve. The 17 and 14 year old can take it off any time, but the 17 year old likes us to check for scams after my oldest had an issue with that and the 14 year old is just fairly content as she mostly just wants rhythm games on her phone.

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