Am I the only parent shocked by text messages and social media postings of Jr. High kids?

[Anonymous]

Many parents are clueless and/or don't have the guts to monitor their own kids social media accounts.

Hello parents. You don't need a password. Just search for your kids name. You will be shocked.

[Anonymous]

It is shocking. My 7th grader is still 12 so she does not have any accounts. But I go online and search friends/classmates that are over 13 (or lie and say they are) and most are innocent and stupid but there are some that WOW. Blow me away. The young kids who pose in bikinis and let people rate their tits and ass. Blech.

My daughter really isn't into all that so I am hoping once she is 13, she doesn't ask. Not sure if she is ready. She is still pretty shy and innocent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your middle school child? The minimum age to have an Instagram account is 13. That doesn't mean that kids aren't doing it anyway.

I know a 5th grader on instagram. Clearly the minimum ages have no impact.

Parents can and should enforce them. And you can report underage Instagram users also:

https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/290666591035380/

Honestly. Won't work. If I were the child, I would just recreate another account. Parents can't supervise everything. What we need to teach are the tools of maturity so that the child knows what to do in cyberspace and in this new age of social media. (Maybe social isn't social anymore)

[Anonymous]

I'm curious when this all starts. My oldest just turned 10yo and he is a bit dorky, but he is so far from this kind of mindset, it seems impossible that he'll be immersed in this kind of thinking in a year or two. He doesn't have a phone, only plays animal games on the computer, and cares mostly about Legos. How quickly should I expect that to morph into the awful stuff you all encounter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents are clueless and/or don't have the guts to monitor their own kids social media accounts.

Hello parents. You don't need a password. Just search for your kids name. You will be shocked.

How can you possibly know every one of your child's accounts? You don't think they have secret accounts that you don't know about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents are clueless and/or don't have the guts to monitor their own kids social media accounts.

Hello parents. You don't need a password. Just search for your kids name. You will be shocked.

How can you possibly know every one of your child's accounts? You don't think they have secret accounts that you don't know about?

You seem not to have understood her post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious when this all starts. My oldest just turned 10yo and he is a bit dorky, but he is so far from this kind of mindset, it seems impossible that he'll be immersed in this kind of thinking in a year or two. He doesn't have a phone, only plays animal games on the computer, and cares mostly about Legos. How quickly should I expect that to morph into the awful stuff you all encounter?

It starts when you condition your children
to disobey you (the parents).

[Anonymous]

It starts because parents give smart phones WAY too early. If your kid has to have a phone, a flip phone is fine.

[Anonymous]

I saw 4 kids from my daughter's middle school grade skipping class and posting an Instagram picture about it (outside with middle fingers up - classy!). Anyway, my daughter is not friends with them but I know 2 of the moms pretty well from elementary school. Almost want to say something because they seem like good but clueless parents. I just think somehow it will come back to haunt my daughter. If the moms say who told them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw 4 kids from my daughter's middle school grade skipping class and posting an Instagram picture about it (outside with middle fingers up - classy!). Anyway, my daughter is not friends with them but I know 2 of the moms pretty well from elementary school. Almost want to say something because they seem like good but clueless parents. I just think somehow it will come back to haunt my daughter. If the moms say who told them.

I would want to know if my daughter was skipping school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw 4 kids from my daughter's middle school grade skipping class and posting an Instagram picture about it (outside with middle fingers up - classy!). Anyway, my daughter is not friends with them but I know 2 of the moms pretty well from elementary school. Almost want to say something because they seem like good but clueless parents. I just think somehow it will come back to haunt my daughter. If the moms say who told them.

I would want to know if my daughter was skipping school.

Yeah, but I think we had a thread about this a while back. Take anything I say with a grain of salt, because apparently I am a too-naive parent of elementary school kids. There was a thread about drugs, and perhaps drug dealing, and the vast majority of the responses were MYOB and oh no, if you tell the other parent, your kid will be shunned at school and he will never tell you anything again. In his life. Ever.

I would love to see the other responses you get, because it surprises me how much MYOB gets thrown around here.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, I hate seeing the young girls with the middle fingers up. I wish there was a way to inform the parents about this, wihtout it coming from you....maybe talk to the counselor privately, but teh kids would probably face some consequences for skipping school. If the photos are private on instagram, I would MYOB, but if public, I might say something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your middle school child? The minimum age to have an Instagram account is 13. That doesn't mean that kids aren't doing it anyway.

I know a 5th grader on instagram. Clearly the minimum ages have no impact.

The 4th graders in our near-Vienna elementary school are on Instagram.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your middle school child? The minimum age to have an Instagram account is 13. That doesn't mean that kids aren't doing it anyway.

I know a 5th grader on instagram. Clearly the minimum ages have no impact.

The 4th graders in our near-Vienna elementary school are on Instagram.

That is so sad. Really sad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your middle school child? The minimum age to have an Instagram account is 13. That doesn't mean that kids aren't doing it anyway.

I know a 5th grader on instagram. Clearly the minimum ages have no impact.

The 4th graders in our near-Vienna elementary school are on Instagram.

That is so sad. Really sad

But, it's true. I did not even know my kids had an Instagram account in 5th grade. They are so tech saavy. And, it's not what they post but the posts from others that are alarming. and, the girls who post those "hoochie" pictures of themselves. I try to keep tabs on my kids and keep them close but it is impossible to know what they are doing at all times no matter how much we police. I try to keep them as busy as much as possible.