If all communication is via snap chat- how can you know what is going on with your kid's phone????

[Anonymous]

I found out my son was doing drugs on snap chat. Smoking various things and pills. I am embarrassed that I didn’t know otherwise. I thought he was depressed and looked to see if he was being bullied or had girl issues. I was shocked. It was so bad that it was happening during school and on the weekdays.

I will never not look thru my kids phones as needed. Parents really need to learn how to use snap, tik tok, Insta, and get access to all the chats. Be weary of delete immediately on Snap and vanish mode on Insta. And always make your kids plug in downstairs or in your bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found out my son was doing drugs on snap chat. Smoking various things and pills. I am embarrassed that I didn’t know otherwise. I thought he was depressed and looked to see if he was being bullied or had girl issues. I was shocked. It was so bad that it was happening during school and on the weekdays.

I will never not look thru my kids phones as needed. Parents really need to learn how to use snap, tik tok, Insta, and get access to all the chats. Be weary of delete immediately on Snap and vanish mode on Insta. And always make your kids plug in downstairs or in your bedroom.

We do this and we make the kids do this. Phones all get charged at a central location in the living room.

Sorry about your son PP. Hope things are getting better for him. That is definitely a fear for us. The drugs are prevalent at our MCPS high school. Easily accessible and ubiquitous. I worry about this constantly because whether it's weed or adderall or fentanyl, the kids seem to be able to get their hands on anything AT school.

[Anonymous]

My kid swears we are the only ones who make them plug in their phone, and if they forget to turn off notifications it is buzzing non stop. So I guess a lot of parents don’t. I just don’t get why you would let a teen have 24/7 access to a screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid swears we are the only ones who make them plug in their phone, and if they forget to turn off notifications it is buzzing non stop. So I guess a lot of parents don’t. I just don’t get why you would let a teen have 24/7 access to a screen.

Mine says the same. I am the strictest mom.

I allow 3 hours of Snap which I think is more than generous and they act like it is 20min. But once the time is over it’s done for the day unless I approve more time. So they need to manage it better.

[Anonymous]

My kids aren't allowed to get any apps that are for 13 and up until they're at least 13, obviously. So it's not an option for my 11 year old yet.

My almost 14 year old knows that I would need to check her snaps a lot if she got it (we have thumbprint access to her phone and she charges it outside of her room at night, but she's a very responsible kid and we don't check it very much). So that was enough of a deterrent that she has chosen not to get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Murdaugh was convicted in large part because of SnapChat.
"The Murdaugh trial was long and complicated, lasting 28 days. However, a merely 50 second Snapchat video became one of the most influential pieces of evidence. While these types of videos appear to go away after a short time – this proves some live on."

Yes, snaps live on. They might not be able to be seen by a parent holding the phone or the kid after they delete them/they disappear, but digital investigators can easily find them.

My last case involving snapchat involved teens (college aged teens, but still teens). He said vs she said related to a SA. The snapchat data I found proved that the defendant was no longer at the location where the SA happened when it was supposed to have happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids aren't allowed to get any apps that are for 13 and up until they're at least 13, obviously. So it's not an option for my 11 year old yet.

My almost 14 year old knows that I would need to check her snaps a lot if she got it (we have thumbprint access to her phone and she charges it outside of her room at night, but she's a very responsible kid and we don't check it very much). So that was enough of a deterrent that she has chosen not to get it.

I didn’t allow snap but found out my kid was deleting the app every night before turning her phone in and reading each day. I forgot to change the settings for installing/deleting apps with a parental code. So a slip up for me and pretty conniving of what I thought was my easier of the two teens.