Kids and social media

[clone4life82]

Do your kids have social media? If so what age are they and what do they have? What kind of parental controls have you put in place? What discussions and things have you looked into for it? I haven’t had Facebook, Snapchat, twitter, take your pick for over 7 years (and all I really had was Facebook). I have a 14 yr old daughter begging me for Snapchat and am Leary about letting her get it. Appreciate any input given the subject!

 

[GoldCy]

Some adults don't know how to handle it.

 

[carvers4math]

My kids are 22-32 so I am not the best gauge. We were the mean parents who didn’t let them have a phone until they were 16.

Currently I think all five of them will occasionally look at Instagram and that’s about it. They are more likely to just talk to friends online gaming. The older two got on Facebook in high school but no longer look at it. Several of them are on Reddit occasionally.

Cyber bullying is a problem. There are guides for teens online. You might also consult your school counselor for resources and suggestions.

 

[BCClone]

Do your kids have social media? If so what age are they and what do they have? What kind of parental controls have you put in place? What discussions and things have you looked into for it? I haven’t had Facebook, Snapchat, twitter, take your pick for over 7 years (and all I really had was Facebook). I have a 14 yr old daughter begging me for Snapchat and am Leary about letting her get it. Appreciate any input given the subject!

Make her add you at first. That will tell you a few things if you are highly concerned.

The oldest kid gets the most supervision. It basically comes down to trust and communication with your kids. Kids will do things you don’t like and lie and hide some. The biggest thing is to communicate and raise them well so when you can’t be around them later. Know her friends and that can also help you know how they will be.

 

[clonedude]

Some adults don't know how to handle it.

Majority of adults don't know how to handle it.

 

[CYdTracked]

Dreading this dilemma myself in about 5 years when my oldest will be 14. Pretty sure this topic will come up before then too as seems like kids are getting phones and social media apps at such early age.

Already been trying to prepare myself for the day the decision will be made. When Carson King got smeared by the DMR for his tweets from years past my wife and I both said that is going to be an example we'll try to use when we let our kids have social media apps. We both don't post much but mostly observe and in this day in age want to drive home the point that if you use social media before you post you need to think about if the content is something you would say face to face with someone or something you may look back one day and regret. Easier said than done when you are a teenager that feels bulletproof l.

 

[IASTATE07]

I don't have kids, but my oldest nephew (15) and oldest niece (12) neither have social media yet. Both of my sisters have decided to wait as long as they can with it.

 

[brianhos]

I don't have kids, but my oldest nephew (15) and oldest niece (12) neither have social media yet. Both of my sisters have decided to wait as long as they can with it.

They have snapchat, all kids do.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

We let our daughter get Instagram in middle school, TikTok at 13 and Snapchat when she was 14, but all accounts had to remain private.

I was most leery about Snapchat based on the ability for inappropriate pics to disappear easily. In the end, you just have to trust your kid and warn them about the dangers of putting things online. Find some stories about the dangers. We had our daughter watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. I'd highly advise it.

All kids Snap now. Study groups, team sports, etc all communicate via Snapchat and there are "rules" regarding if a picture shows part of your face, whole face, wall, etc. It's ridiculous, but they all know it.

 

[BCClone]

I guess you could let them have Facebook, because no kid I know has Facebook.

 

[NATEizKING]

Wife might let them when they are 30.

 

[cyfanatic13]

Maybe no one else knows what I'm talking about, but every single one of the high school "barstool" accounts on twitter are so stupid and pointless

 

[carvers4math]

I guess you could let them have Facebook, because no kid I know has Facebook.

The boys’ basketball coach and girls cross country coach use it to communicate schedule changes for practice and travel, so then the kids reluctantly have to get on it for that. I think they finally got the coaches to at least use Messenger so the Facebook world didn’t all need to know that a bunch of girls would be running on some county road at 6:30 am.

 

[NWICY]

Say no to Only Fans that's all I've got for you.

 

[KneeGusto]

If you can avoid a kid going into their first job without them staring at a phone screen, you will have helped them in life.

I work with "kids" (18-30) who can literally not stop working and have to stare at a phone screen every 5 minutes.

I leave my phone away from me at work. People that know me - know I'm at work. They leave a message and we get together later. If it is an emergency, they can call and have me paged. Otherwise, I'm at work - leave me the hell alone.

Kids (18-30) that have to check Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. every 5 minutes at work makes me mental. It means I have to cover for your productivity loss, your absence from you doing your job, and makes my day longer and more difficult.

I don't care if Debbie needs some positive affirmation. Don't make my workday worse.

 

[dosry5]

My teens have some social media. The rule with their phones and social media accounts has always been mom and dad have all usernames and passwords. We pay for it, it’s privilege. Lots of parents will talk about just having to trust your kids…..well, maybe, but what about other kids or worse, adults who can communicate with your kids on different apps? We gave in on Snapchat because their sports teams all used it to communicate. We used Bark for awhile to monitor communication—you can set up filters to catch things, and were astounded at what some of their friends were sending. For example, one of my kid’s friend was telling my daughter, via text, about how she was having really cool conversations with a 28 year old man via Omegle.

I’m in law enforcement, you can trust your kid all you want, but the interwebs are full of horrible humans of all ages who will absolutely take advantage of your child given the chance. I trust my kids fully….but group think and social media peer pressure will absolutely make kids do things you’d think they wouldn’t.

 

[CascadeClone]

When you get your kids a phone, you MUST do "The Talk" with them. It's basically the same concept as the sex talk when they get old enough to understand that. By the way, whenever you think they are ready, you are 6-12 months too late. Talk to them BEFORE you think they are ready, or you are behind the curve.

WRT social media you have to cover:
exploitation / scams / pedophiles
everything on the internet is forever (including Snapchat)
almost everything you see is actually a commercial, often designed to make you feel bad about yourself
etc etc

There's lots of support for that talk out there online, go find it. You can't protect them forever, but you MUST arm them with knowledge so they can defend themselves.

 

[CascadeClone]

I’m in law enforcement, you can trust your kid all you want, but the interwebs are full of horrible humans of all ages who will absolutely take advantage of your child given the chance. I trust my kids fully….but group think and social media peer pressure will absolutely make kids do things you’d think they wouldn’t.

Unfortunately, can confirm.

 

[BryceC]

My kids are younger (12 and 10) but they don't even seem interested in social media. They just want to watch youtube shorts all the time.

 

[cdnlngld]

6 kids here in ages 7-18. The two oldest(17 and 18) have access to SM, but all accounts are to be set to private, mom and dad have passwords and access, and my wife has apps to monitor activity. my 15 and 14 YO are not quite mature enough to handle phones period. my 7 YO has a phone but only gets to use hotspots, and no social media. My 9 YO has a phone and kids FB, but that's about it. We limit phones and usage on a kid by kid basis, My oldest 4 are adopted so contact with their bio parents has always been a concern. Sure enough almost as soon as our kids got SM their bio mom tried to contact them. Luckily neither of our 2 oldest have expressed any interest in making the connection with her.