How young is too young...Teen Social Media

CryptoGuru Level X³

August 11, 2016, 12:58 am

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Ok my fellow freelancers with children, what is a good age for your children/ teen to have their own social media accounts??

I see a lot of young children (like 8-14) attached to their smart phones on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, twitter, snapchat, tumblr, etc.

I definitely do not agree with young children having social media accounts, it is so easy for someone to pretend to be someone else and I believe that social media sites are not made for children under 18 - not child friendly. That is only my opinion. What is your say on this?

Do your children have social media accounts?
Do you / would you monitor your childrens' accounts?
What is the youngest age you would allow your children to have social media accounts?

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EliteWriter

Do you / would you monitor your childrens' accounts? - Definitely! I would want to know the password and most probably I will be checking daily what they would be up to.
What is the youngest age you would allow your children to have social media accounts? - Facebook states that a user can have an account if he is 13 years of age. So most probably I might have to stick to that when the time comes. I would prefer it if they could do without it but I assume that with peer pressure they will most probably want to set up an account even before that. Social media can be great to keep in touch and so on, but it can be so frightening and dangerous too. Parents need to be ever present to protect their children, because teens are not mature enough to safeguard themselves from the various dangers of social media as well as other online uses.

10 years ago

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CryptoGuru

Yes, EliteWriter I agree as well! When and if the time comes, I will always monitor their social media and internet usage. I did not realize that you can create an account on facebook at age 13, that I think, is a bit too young for facebook. I agree that facebook is great to keep in touch with friend and family, thats actually all my wife uses it for. LOL

10 years ago

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Lynne

I will most certainly monitor my kids social media accounts one day. If they are not 18 years old I will insist that I have full access to everything they do. It is my responsibility as their parent to make sure that they are safe.

10 years ago

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CryptoGuru

Yes, I 100 percent agree with you. There are too many bad and crazy people out there looking to harm people! My childrens tablet, phones, computers will always be monitored and checked, of course once they are all old to enough (to my standards) to have any kind of social media account.

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

Thankfully my little girl is only 7 years old right now and doesn't really go on anything except a disney website

The thing about kids is that you won't really be able to stop them from getting online and having social profiles. They're going to do it with or without you and it's extremely difficult to monitor them online. You can put safe guards on your internet or computer that doesn't allow them to access certain websites, but a lot of kids now a days are getting more and more tech savvy and will be able to bypass what you've done and edit the settings themselves.

If they have their own smartphones they will definitely be on all the social networks that they want to be on. Even if you tell them they can't have an account, they will because their friends have accounts and they want to hang out with them in person and in the digital world as well. Even if you're paying for the phone each month, it's not enough to stop them lol

They will get defiant and do what they want even though you're trying to protect them. But you'll have to come to the realization that your little one is getting older and needs to be more independent. You'll always be there for them to run back to if they mess something up, but they have to learn on their own.

I personally like the idea of locking my daughter in her room until she goes away to college. But my girlfriend said that was a horrible idea and that our little girl needs to be outside every day.

10 years ago

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CryptoGuru

Ha ha ha ha I love that about locking your daughter in her room. My wife and I have 3 girls and I totally agree with you there, Razzy! I definitely hear you on everything else too. It is so hard now a days to try to monitor what your children do on the internet and what social media sites they are using. Our oldest is 7 and she doesnt have any electronics, thankfully. Or has shown any interest in social media.

10 years ago

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Cristian

My wife and I don't have children yet so we don't know about this issue for letting kids use social media.
I guess they don't really need a facebook account until they are like 16. I would buy them a smartphone after they reach 14. They can use apps like Whatsapp to chat with their friends and stuff, but that's about it.

No point in letting them have mainstream social media accounts. They can do that later in life when they're capable of handling such a public account.

PS: I wonder if Facebook will still be around when my kids read 16, lol.

10 years ago

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CryptoGuru

I agree with that, i was 14 when i got my own cell phone and about 16 or 17 when i started using social media sites!

10 years ago

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anwebservices

Nowadays it's harder to estimate how old person is still child. We had some problem on one occasion where we wanted to provide free tickets for kids on some music show. We were getting some 12-13 years old kids looking so grown up, and yet they approach you like grown ups...
I know it's different on social media sites, but kids rally feels like more grown up now then 20 years ago. I oppose to let young children to use social media, but i wanted to say that's hard to determine how old they should be to start using it?...

10 years ago

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Lynne

Oh this is such a debatable topic isnt it? Razzy, YES, the only way to safely ensure that our kids dont get themselves into any trouble is to lock them up until they are 18. It certainly is tempting when you look at all the dangers of the word, with the internet and social media just being one aspect of it.

However that said we will be releasing young adults that have no idea how to look after themselves, have no social skills and will certainly get themselves into more trouble than if we hadn't sheltered them!

I just don't know when the right time is for children. Mine are only 2 and 4 years old so they are thankfully blissfully unaware of social media. My daughter asks to see things on my laptop and she is usually meaning Youtube videos.

This debate ties in very closely with what age your child should get a phone since once they get a phone you will lose control of what they do online.

10 years ago

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Corzhens

Maybe 14 or 15 would be fine but I know that some friends give their 12-year old the permission to create their own social media account. In fact, I have 2 friends who have just given birth and their babies have already their own Facebook accounts. I know that children are prone to mistakes and gullibility so my take is to monitor the social media use of your children. That way, age wouldn’t matter because even an 8-year old can be on the right track in social media with the right guidance of parents.

9 years ago

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Seoclerks

How young is too young...Teen Social Media

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