Anonymous wrote:I am shocked parents give their 6 graders phones with full internet and social media use. they are 11yrs old. Tell them to go outside and play instead of snapchatting and watching porn.

Oh wait, it is too dangerous to go outside and play. Much safer to give them the entire internet on the phone.

This. Middle schoolers do not need smart phones. Flip phones do just fine.

--mother of a 12th grader and a 7th grader

Anonymous wrote:I am shocked parents give their 6 graders phones with full internet and social media use. they are 11yrs old. Tell them to go outside and play instead of snapchatting and watching porn.

Oh wait, it is too dangerous to go outside and play. Much safer to give them the entire internet on the phone.

Said the mother of a 7 year old boy . . .

I am shocked parents give their 6 graders phones with full internet and social media use. they are 11yrs old. Tell them to go outside and play instead of snapchatting and watching porn.

Oh wait, it is too dangerous to go outside and play. Much safer to give them the entire internet on the phone.

Anonymous wrote:13 is the minimum. Anything less, they are breaking the law.

This is a common myth. Using the app at 13 would only violate the Snapchat Terms of Service, not the law. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies to the operators of the app, not to kids who use it.

I agree with the post at 4/20 11:14 am on their characterization of how their tween/teen uses snapchat. My DD first got an instagram in 6th Grade after the earning the right to get it with a good academic performance (it's a privilege, not a right!) and we wrote up a social media contract with all the rules you would think of. Beginning of 7th Grade, she asked for snapchat and we discussed concerns with her, but said yes after she had demonstrated responsibility with Instagram. She's really stopped using Instagram for anything other than "big moment" posts because she didn't like the pressure to earn "likes" and the feeling of being ranked in popularity through your likes and posts. Snapchat is just with her friends and she's using it more and more frequently to feel connected to them without worrying about likes or comments. Middle school can be a tough time, and social media can be an important way for your kid to nurture friendships but it can also add to emotional drama. That being said, Snapchat is much harder to monitor as a parent because if you log into her phone and open a message, it's gone from her screen and then she can't see it. (Instagram is also not that easy to monitor, unless you log in as your child on their phone, because if you just follow her account, you can't see posts that she's tagged in or posts she's commented on, unless you are following that other person too). And the feeling of exclusion that a pp mentions can happen in any social media format -- be it multiple photos from the event your kid is not invited to shared on snapchat, or a post on Instagram (and Instagram is more public because all your other friends can see you are not there and your kid can see all the comments talking about how awesome the event was). I try to take away kids' phones at parties and big events for that very reason, but that's a hard line to draw all the time. My son, on the other hand (same age), very much didn't want a Snapchat account because he couldn't think of a reason why he would want to use it other than to be up to no good and therefore wanted no temptation. I would also mention Snapchat seems to burn through data much faster, thanks to all those photos going back and forth.

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Anonymous wrote:OP here, 6th grade, age 12.5. I looked it up and I believe it's supposed to be for 13 and up, but there are 12 yo in the class using it. Would just like to hear some on the ground experience, positive and negative.

How is your kid 12.5 in 6th grade? My daughter started high school at 13?

I don't know why your daughter started high school at 13? So not the point but my "on time" DS had his driving learner's permit in 9th grade and was driving himself to school as a sophomore.

Well my daughter's birthday is September 23rd and she also started high school as a 13yr old "on time" in Montgomery County. Actually many kids started high school at age 13 because there used to be a normal start dates before the whole red-shirting and starting kids at 5 and 6yrs old became the norm.

Cut off for high schoolers in MCPS
Last year's graduates was Dec 31.
Current Seniors was Nov 30th.
Current Juniors was Oct 31st
Current Sophmores was Sept 30th
Current Freshman was Sept 1st

So for any child in school now or before that had their learner's permit as a freshman (minimum 15.9yrs old) were not on time. Not by a long shot.

What is your problem?

+1 This is not the focus of OP's question.

I am a criminal defense attorney. We are going to buy a beach house soon and one of our potential names for it is, "$napchat." I have a teen and I don't allow snapchat and a few other apps at this point.

Snapchats for naked pictures. everyone knows that

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Anonymous wrote:OP here, 6th grade, age 12.5. I looked it up and I believe it's supposed to be for 13 and up, but there are 12 yo in the class using it. Would just like to hear some on the ground experience, positive and negative.

How is your kid 12.5 in 6th grade? My daughter started high school at 13?

I don't know why your daughter started high school at 13? So not the point but my "on time" DS had his driving learner's permit in 9th grade and was driving himself to school as a sophomore.

Well my daughter's birthday is September 23rd and she also started high school as a 13yr old "on time" in Montgomery County. Actually many kids started high school at age 13 because there used to be a normal start dates before the whole red-shirting and starting kids at 5 and 6yrs old became the norm.

Cut off for high schoolers in MCPS
Last year's graduates was Dec 31.
Current Seniors was Nov 30th.
Current Juniors was Oct 31st
Current Sophmores was Sept 30th
Current Freshman was Sept 1st

So for any child in school now or before that had their learner's permit as a freshman (minimum 15.9yrs old) were not on time. Not by a long shot.

What is your problem?

I work in law enforcement and Snapchat has been out for a long while now and I haven't heard of many cases of it where like, nudie pics get screenshotted and sent all over. As with regular texting, because you can screeenshot, there's still the potential for misuse, but it's really not that bad. I have a Snapchat account myself and mostly just send funny pictures of things to my boyfriend and close friends that aren't really so awesome they require a permanent picture be taken.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, 6th grade, age 12.5. I looked it up and I believe it's supposed to be for 13 and up, but there are 12 yo in the class using it. Would just like to hear some on the ground experience, positive and negative.

How is your kid 12.5 in 6th grade? My daughter started high school at 13?

I don't know why your daughter started high school at 13? So not the point but my "on time" DS had his driving learner's permit in 9th grade and was driving himself to school as a sophomore.

Well my daughter's birthday is September 23rd and she also started high school as a 13yr old "on time" in Montgomery County. Actually many kids started high school at age 13 because there used to be a normal start dates before the whole red-shirting and starting kids at 5 and 6yrs old became the norm.

Cut off for high schoolers in MCPS
Last year's graduates was Dec 31.
Current Seniors was Nov 30th.
Current Juniors was Oct 31st
Current Sophmores was Sept 30th
Current Freshman was Sept 1st

So for any child in school now or before that had their learner's permit as a freshman (minimum 15.9yrs old) were not on time. Not by a long shot.

Anonymous wrote:My DD just got Snapchat after having Instagram for a few months. The way she uses it is really quite silly. She and about 25 friends exchange pictures of each other multiple times per day. The pictures are just random selfies, not like what you'd post on Instagram or Facebook. It's like, here's me sitting in the car on my way to practice. Words seem to be very rarely exchanged in her circles. She says she likes it better because (1) its not like bragging on Instagram and (2) there is a lower threat making a poorly worded comment on Instagram that could make someone mad. It seems rather pointless to me. I think it just makes them feel connected. It's the equivalent of being at home and on the phone with your best friend while you watched TV and didn't actually speak to each other (did anyone else do that in the 70s).

You are exchanging photos one-to-one (except where you post your STORY) so there is less concern about accidently offending someone. She knows nothing is truly private, but it's very different than posting a photo of you and three friends somewhere when there is a 4th friend that was left out (which happens on Instagram all the time). There is a bit of odd flirting with boys that goes on as well. She says boys tend to do things like send photos of the ceiling back. HA!

This describes my 8th grader's use of it too and that's a good analogy PP. The one issue that's come up is that, since they're snapping themselves everywhere, if you're not invited to a party or outing you always find out. This just happened to my DD where she wasn't invited to a sleepover that many of her friends were at - they were snapchatting all night and it reached the point where I had to take away my DD's phone as she couldn't stop looking and was so upset at being excluded. I guess that is an issue with all social media, but with snapchat it seems to be worse.

I'm not really a fan of it, but I think it'll eventually burn out.

Snapchat is the primary way that my older teens communicate with their friends via social media, other than group chats (via text).

You can screen capture from Snapchat, but the sender gets notified.

I would be much more hesitant about the social media platform like snapchat where the messages disappear. They have given rise to a lot more bad conduct. our sons both use instagram and will both admit that it would be easier to do something implusive and stupid on the message apps.

My 13 yr old has it. They send each other funny (to them, stupid to me) pictures/videos.

It's just DD's friends, some of their friends, and some random girls who also like Melanie Martinez.