Anonymous wrote:It’s easier to bully people and keep tabs on them with Snapchat. Bullies love it.

You are totally making this up

I think you can successfully limit this stuff in middle school but it’s a fools task in high school. You either have a compliant kid who isn’t that interested anyway so the ban works and you pat yourself on the back that it’s your parenting rather than kids personality, or your kid will get it anyway away from guidance/supervision. Your best bet is to convince your kids it’s bad for them and have them make these decisions themselves.

Anyway - my kids who are 14 and 16 use text a lot with close friends. But all of their friends have iPhones. I think when there is a mix of androids and iPhones no one wants a green group chat so they use snap. Snap is also used for casual friends and new acquaintances. Kind of depends on how much your kid is interested in “networking” with a lot of their peers or if they are more the type to have a tight knit group that doesn’t change much. I have one of each.

Anonymous wrote:My rising 9th grader has said she's been left out because she's not on Snapchat. I did tell her that she could have it, but that I would need to do more monitoring of her phone, and she felt it wasn't worth it.

My rising 7th girl scout troop had a discussion about it. One girl in our troop has it. She's been sent inappropriate things by older boys, ugh. She said that she wouldn't have the nerve to ask kids for their phone number, but adding them on Snap is so easy, so she has all these "friends" she hardly knows. She also has her phone glued in her hand at all times.

As I've told my kids, the upsides are few, and the costs are high (much easier to be bullied and sexually harassed). The streaks also mess with our brains and make it a compulsive habit. If people won't text you because you don't have snapchat, they aren't very good friends.

I do allow Instagram when my kids are 13.

Good thing my kids are “left out.”

I really don’t want them communicating with the kind of kids who have SnapChat.

Yes high schoolers only use Snap

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the grow some balls comment. Parents say they hate it but allow it. We say no to social media for our middle schoolers and desparately wish more of adults would too instead of complaining about it. Wait until age 16.

if they have access to Chrome/Safari, they're using all the social media you say you're not allowing.

Or a $25 burner phone or a Chromebook, or a computer, or an iPad, or their friend’s phone or an old phone lying around the house.

Kids will always be two steps ahead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If parents saw some of things that are out there and the way these kids are being preyed upon, they would not give social media to kids so easily at 13yrs old.

It’s going to be just like smoking and vaping. Until the damaging effects impact them or those close to them they will bury their head in the sand and assume it won’t be them.

People from all corners, doctors, social workers, psychologists, teachers, even some in tech are basically screaming at folks to stop this. But folks are more worried their kid is going to be left out.

Any parent in 2024 would have to be a total idiot to allow their child to use SnapChat.

X1000
And because there’s so many idiot parents, Snapchat needs to be banned for anyone under 18.

You don’t have to get your kids a phone at all. But OP’s kid is right, they communicate through snap. My two teens say the only people that text them are us, their aunts and grandparents. They use snap with friends and for communication with their teams.

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the grow some balls comment. Parents say they hate it but allow it. We say no to social media for our middle schoolers and desparately wish more of adults would too instead of complaining about it. Wait until age 16.

if they have access to Chrome/Safari, they're using all the social media you say you're not allowing.

It’s easier to bully people and keep tabs on them with Snapchat. Bullies love it.