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Showing posts with label Parenting tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parenting tips. Show all posts

Friday, November 29, 2019

What Is The Appropriate Age For a Kid For Using Social Media

One of the biggest conundrums faced by today’s parents is when to allow their kids to use social media websites.
For the healthy growth of your child, it is necessary to follow age restrictions on social media. Learn what are they and how to manage it with parental control apps. Read also: An Age-by-Age Guide for Children and Smartphones

Why do we need age restrictions on social media?

A child younger than 13 years is not mature enough to have developed cognitive functions for impulse control.
Any mistake or misjudgment, which can potentially affect their future, cannot be erased from the web. If online predators target a child, they cannot deal with the situation at a young age.
Interesting facts about social media and kids
Let us find out the age restrictions on some of the most reputed social networking sites that connect the members on a common platform.

Which social media websites have an age restriction?

Facebook

  • Facebook does not allow children younger than 13 years to create an account. Though in some jurisdictions, the age limit may be higher, for example – in South Korea and Spain, kids above 14 can use Facebook.
  • Facebook clearly states that creating an account with false information is a violation of their terms. And it asks the parents whose underage child has created an account on Facebook to help them delete it.
  • Users can also fill the form to notify an account belonging to an underage user, and Facebook promptly deletes it.

Instagram

  • Instagram requires its users to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account (in some jurisdictions, this age limit may be higher).
  • Instagram also asks users to fill out a form and notify them about the accounts being operated by underage so that they can delete them if they cannot verify that someone over 13 years old is managing the account.

Twitter

  • Calling it age screening, Twitter also requires the user to be at least 13 years old, or in the case of Periscope 16 years old, to use their services. 
  • But, during the signup process, a kid can enter a fake date of birth, and there are no preventive measures to supervise that.

Snapchat

  • Like other social media websites, Snapchat has a minimum age requirement of 13 years old. But it is easy to circumvent this by providing the concocted date of birth, and the service has no way of checking.
  • The app is more alarming because it makes the users believe that their images will be safe as they will be removed after a specified time, so kids become bold and might share an embarrassing image. And if the receiver takes a screenshot before that, then it can be circulated easily.

For other platforms, such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and Kik, the minimum age is 13; for Vine, Tinder, and Yik Yak, it’s 17. YouTube allows persons, 18 or above to be account holders, but a 13-year-old can sign up with a parent’s permission.

Parenting tips: How to restrict underage children from using social media

  • Educate them about the skills they’d need when starting to use social media.
  • Keep an eye on their browsing history.
  • Inform them about the online dangers – cyberbullying, pornography, online predation, sexting, etc.
  • Download and use parental control apps to supervise the age limitations on social media and to block those apps if you find them in your child’s phone. You can also disable Play Store, prohibiting them from downloading any new app.
When a child signs up for an account with a fabricated birth date, they cannot have the protection offered by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and their personal information is at risk.
According to research, by the time kids are 10, approximately 59% of them have already used a social network, 52% of 8 to 16-year-olds admit of ignoring Facebook’s age restriction.
The age restrictions on social media are not law; they are recommendations. It is easy for a child to fake birthday and to create an account. That is why a parent needs to monitor their children’s online activities with parental control apps for Android.