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.

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.

Top 5 Reasons Why Parents Need Parental Control

A thought, always running in the background of a parent’s mind is about the safety of their child. The parental control app provides you with the answers to all your child-related security concerns.

We were never so dependent on screens to get through our lives, and they keep demanding more of our attention! Among all the electronic devices, smartphones enjoy the status of being ‘most favorite’ with the kids and adults alike due to obvious reasons.

Although mobile apps enable our children to see the world closer in a different light, parents have to be extra conscious and supportive to help their children find a perfect balance between smartphones and life.

Let us understand the role and importance of parental control in making a safer world for today’s digital generation.

Top 5 Reasons why Parents need Parental Control

• Solves your concern about the safety of kids

Angela Green gave a voice to every concerned parent, stating, “I don't know what's going on, but I just want to get my kids to safety, that's it.” Are we capable of preserving the most valuable resource of this world – children?

For most parents, children are the paramount priority, but we cannot deny that they have to work hard to give their children the best of everything. Even though they want nothing more, they cannot be there with their children all the time.

With parental control apps, you get alerted when your child is under threat. You can take the necessary steps to ensure their safety and let them know that you will always have their back.

Many of the apps let you assign a sensible virtual boundary around your child based on their routine. Read also: 10 Reasons to Use Parental Control Apps for Kids’ Safety

• Allows you to block unsuitable apps

At any public place or even in a family gathering, you’d find a child as young as 2-3 years operating smartphone like an expert. You might not know at what age a child should get a cell phone, but you must realize the impacts of exposure to inappropriate content on their young minds.

Children are too naive to understand the ramifications of their digital addiction. With a child tracking app, you can block any gaming, dating, gambling, or adult apps.

• Enables you to monitor and set the child’s speed-limit

Age never guarantees maturity or the ability to differentiate right from wrong. And when teenage hormones are raging, kids hardly remain in the control of parents.

All kids can think about is taking risks and experimenting with newer things. Some of the kid’s safety apps enable you to set a speed limit on their vehicles with you getting a notification whenever they exceed it.

• Helps to manage a child’s screen time

We know that there is an ocean of content and apps on the internet that can prove to be malignant for your impressionable child. The dependency on digital devices plays havoc on their physical, mental, emotional, and social state.

Some of the child tracking apps might permit you to customize the home screen on a kid’s device, where you can keep the useful apps only. You can also set reasonable time-limits for individual apps.

They let you define the bedtime (when the phone can’t be operated) and also set a limit for other apps.

• Safeguards your child’s personal information

The reach of electronic devices is by far the most prominent one, whether it is a toddler, a preschooler, an adolescent, a teenager, or an adult! Teenagers remain online all the time, storing confidential information on their smartphones.

In a scenario such as this, the loss or theft of a phone can be extremely threatening. With GPS tracking feature enabled in parental controls, you can locate the device. A few of them also offer to restore the phone to factory settings remotely.

Without any doubt, playtime is far more valuable for a young child's brain development than electronic media. It would be irrational to expect kids to behave like mature adults overnight; we can gently push them to acquire the best digital etiquette.

Bit Guardian is a fantastic app that arms you with all of the functions mentioned above and many more. Let us not leave our children in a lurch, opt to digital monitoring by using and downloading the Parental Control App.

Parent's Guide to Internet Safety with Security

With internet access becoming Omni-present, kids are taking charge of gizmos with manic frenzy. The excessive exposure to screen time leads an entire generation towards tech obsession.

Thus, digital addiction creates anxiety among parents worldwide. To turn your anxiety into serenity, we have come up with the solution of screen time control for children. Let us see how?

Screen Time App - a tool to kill online addiction

An application that secures children from excessive use of smartphones or similar devices is the screen time app. This app comes under the purview of parental control software. 

Parental controls are designed for the users to keep tabs on kids' tasks like viewable contents, application usage, virtual screen control, and many more.

The security of children is the foremost concern any parent will take into consideration. Hence, this is the software which is used to supervise and restrict the device usage ability of teens.

Hold your seats to know more about the preventive steps to curb the excessive screening hours.

• Parents guide to internet safety

Teach your kids the importance of time management:

Establish the boundaries to control the device usage capacity of kids.  Use a screen time app to adjust the proper timing of using each application. 

Follow these effective set of rules and define the parameters on gadgets:

• 30-45 minutes of a target on gaming apps
• 15-20 minutes of goal on social media apps
• 10 minutes for other apps
• Around 1 hour for educational apps 
• Total shutdown of the phone during bedtime

• Switch to another alternative as well:

Parental controls offer various options in concern with the security of the children.

You can apply other tools like App Blockers that can block unnecessary and unwanted applications on kid's devices.

App Blocker will mitigate the risk of over usage of mobiles, and in turn, kids will relieve their eyes from screens.

You can also set up the Kiosk Mode tool in chid's device that allows the use of only selected apps to children. It will create a new launcher on the kid's mobile home screen.

• Safeguard the gateway of devices with passwords: 

The way you lock your house for the safety of property, why not to lock the screen for the protection of children? 

Create an alpha-numeric password that cannot be cracked by children and make sure to save it at a safer place.

Use the fingerprint scanning or facial recognition as a password. You can also go with the device pattern option to avoid typing keyboard passwords.

• Encourage engagement in other activities:

Keep your kids occupied in other activities like sports, skiing, painting, and alike. Encourage their morale with your participation on the board games or sports.

When children spend more time on such activities, they will remain away from gadgets, and in turn, it helps in screen time control.

The latest news buzzing around the electronic media is about the gaming addicted British children who are under the care.

According to a Mirror Investigation, "Device addiction is widespread and blown an 11 year and a 13-year-old child. They lag behind in schools and snub their friends or isolate themselves in a space where they can stick to a screen."

Follow the parents' guide to internet safety for the complete security of kids.

Install the best screen time app i.e., Bit Guardian Parental Control to protect kids from the hiccups of excessive screen time. Get it on your device now!

Six ways to establish boundaries for your kid’s smartphones

The tech-centric world is fully empowered, incredible, and awfully exciting. But it is also intruding from routine responsibilities and kinships- especially for children who are obsessed with electronic devices. 

Are your children getting on your nerves when you interrupt them while they are on their device?

Does your kid forget to blink an eye when staring on gadgets?

As a parent, it is your onus to keep tabs on a kid's digital exposure and protect them from the excessive habit of checking mobile screens. Keep reading; we have shared the best solution for screen time control app.

How to establish boundaries for your kid’s mobile device?

• Technology etiquettes

 It is deliberately required to teach children some etiquettes of using technology. Say for instance, at the dinner table, if you find your kids plugged into music on the phone, won't you feel annoyed? 

Hence, educating children to follow device etiquette is very important.

• Enforce device rules: 

 To separate kids from smartphones, you should enforce certain rules so they can share ideas and remain free from it.

You can set protocols like:

• no device allowed at the dinner table, 
• avoid answering phones when sitting with visitors at home or 
• meeting and engaging with people in parties instead of holding a device.

• Fix the time of using gadgets:

 You should prearrange the hours of using phones or tablets. Kids should not be allowed mobiles during bedtime or at visitor’s place.

Use parental control software for screen time control that allows you to set the timings for accessing multiple applications. You can fix the curfew hours and restrict the viewable content with the use of parental controls.

• Follow what you impart: 

Children will imitate the things you do. Hence, before asking them to follow good habits, first, you need to control your screen time. 

You can avoid using phones in front of kids unless it's important. You should stop attending calls or peeping on screens during meals or while helping kids in projects or studies. This way, you can convey a compelling message that boundaries are not just for teens but for parents too.

• Occupy children in other fruitful activities:

 When kids are constantly paying attention to useless notifications and pop-ups, divert their mind into various activities.

Let your kids forsake tablets and smartphones in favor of board games and toys. Ask your child to play outside sport or inculcate hobbies like dancing, singing and alike. 

Sit with them and enjoy good music or handover a good book. 

• Download parental control app:

 Screen time control is significantly possible with parental control application. It is a software that is built to monitor and curb the child’s digital activities.

Diversified tools of a parental control app helps you to curtail your kid’s screen time in many ways as described below:

• Time Schedule: Controls the screen time on the device where you can set curfew hours.

• App Blockers: You can restrict the use of unwanted or objectionable applications, so teens are saved from online vulnerabilities.

• Call Blockers: You can restrict the futile hours your child is spending unnecessarily with peers on calls. You can block the spam or unknown and known callers with this feature. 

Establishing healthy boundaries and screen time control is achievable with Bit Guardian Parental Control -  a Paradigm in parental control landscape. Trust the users and get the app on your device today!