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Personally, I think that parents that allow their young children to be online on such social sites as you describe are making a big mistake. I'm not sure how you back out after you opened the barn door so to speak...Unless you say to your child that you've taken a look at the site, and based on the behaviors of many of the posters you've decided that you are not ok w/ your child participating on a site that promotes exclusion, and boasting, and anything that could hurt other children's feelings. For me, I would have only had to see your post, hear about the pictures and rating someone's looks to know for my sixth grader it would be off limits. Good luck on this. In many ways I feel parenting adolescents is so much harder these days.
I used to think instagram was just a filter on the camera but recently found out it was social networking. I asked my daughter to show me what she does on instagram and now I am okay with it. I guess it is all about how much you trust your kid to do the right thing.
That, along how much you trust all the random strangers....some of which are not kids...to do the right thing. I guess I have trust issues.
I know this an older thread but would to make an updated comment. My dear daughter snuck this on her iPod when we weren't on our toes. We control what she can download but this one got by me. Yeah, shame on me. I know.
Wow, I was in for a rude awakening when I started going through her profile. Although she isn't posting anything inappropriate and mostly all her pics are of fashion things like shoes, nails, etc, I was shocked at what some other kids are posting. What is especially bothersome is that they will follow ANYONE and in their profile, most kids are posting, "follow me and I will follow you." One kid in her school had 1600 followers!! My daughter has 200......I'm SURE that she isn't best friends with a 20 something from Austria.......
Even her only friend who is a sweet, slightly delayed young lady of 14 was posting sexy bikini pics of herself. She had also posted some questionable drawings she did of a person with a gun in their mouth. Yesterday when I saw her mother, I walked over to the car and said, "Hey J, what do you think of this Instagram app?" The response was, "What's Instagram?" I urged the mother to check out her daughter's profile. Some of the photos I saw from my daughter's other "followers" were definitely not suitable for young eye...male sex doll in his full glory, pretty crude slogans, etc.
Even worse are the kid posting all sorts of personal info...photos of houses, their rooms, sexy shots. I'm sure that a few of them have turned on the location option....how scary.
If a kid was using this app amongst their friends only, it wouldn't be such a big thing. I was appalled though at how little judgement these young teens have. I also suspect that quite a few parents have NO idea of what this app does. I certainly got a rude awakening a few days ago. And yes, I do feel the fool. Thank goodness that some of our Internet safety lectures took hold in daughter since she actually showed good judgement on what she posted, although the sneaky behavior is something we have to address.
I heard Instagram was the "new thing" for a lot of kids, espeically since Facebook is banned by a lot of parents (bullying/etc).
Instagram works like twitter. Take a picture. . and people can follow you. You can select if you want to share with everyone (public) or just the people who you "accepted"
Depending on the age. . I would just ask that you be made an accepted follower and then you can monitor the conservation.
Set easy rules (turn off GPS location on the photo, no bullying, no sexy photos, always remember mom/dad is watching, pick no more than 20 people to follow - seriously you don't need 200.).
Personally I wouldn't worry about things like the sleepover. That kind of drama, i assume, happens regardless of instragram.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gimme it
My sixth grader and practically most of her middle school are doing Instagram. I see it as such a mixed bag. It's a nice way to make meaningful connections with other kids who might not be in your class, but it's also a breeding ground for hurt feelings, drama, and worst of all the kids use it to show off(christmas time was interesting with all the pictures of Mac Airbooks and Iphones, etc( I look at my daughter's account and I have seen things such as a group of girls posting pics of a sleepover party and then another girl is clearly hurt and asks why she was left out. Also, kids post things like: Rate Me and they ask whether they are beautiful, pretty, average, ugly... and the other kids answer. I have insomnia so I thinking about this. I also notice that many of the girls put on a ton of makeup and post "selfies"which are pictures of themselves. Thoughts?
Over the weekend we decided to allow our 12 years old DD to get an instragram account. Her account is of course on private and we are following each other. Before saying yes DH and I spoke with her setting some ground rules. I think it was a very positive discussion. She does not have FB and has not even asked for it. She could care less about twitter and while she has oovoo the only person she speaks to is me. LOL
Like it or not social media is here to stay and the way I look at it instagram is the least of all the other evils out there and its a good starting point.
CHRISFROMCHICAGO: Depending on the age. . I would just ask that you be made an accepted follower and then you can monitor the conservation.
Set easy rules (turn off GPS location on the photo, no bullying, no sexy photos, always remember mom/dad is watching, pick no more than 20 people to follow - seriously you don't need 200.).
Above were exactly our rules - also the people she is following or the people who are following her needs to be an actual friend.
Over the weekend we decided to allow our 12 years old DD to get an instragram account. Her account is of course on private and we are following each other. Before saying yes DH and I spoke with her setting some ground rules. I think it was a very positive discussion. She does not have FB and has not even asked for it. She could care less about twitter and while she has oovoo the only person she speaks to is me. LOL
Like it or not social media is here to stay and the way I look at it instagram is the least of all the other evils out there and its a good starting point.
CHRISFROMCHICAGO: Depending on the age. . I would just ask that you be made an accepted follower and then you can monitor the conservation.
Set easy rules (turn off GPS location on the photo, no bullying, no sexy photos, always remember mom/dad is watching, pick no more than 20 people to follow - seriously you don't need 200.).
Above were exactly our rules - also the people she is following or the people who are following her needs to be an actual friend.
::cough cough:: Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the resident crazy person.
However, I wish all parents were like you. If they were on top of this stuff, took the time to lay down rules and actively monitored people, I could sleep easier at night.
Instagram for any preteen/teen with no parental oversight is possibly the worst thing you can do for your kid.
I cringe when I see young people posting "Help me get 1000 followers" and then they also post their locations, phone numbers asking for you text them with what you think of them (yes 12 year olds are publicly posting this), asking the general public to RATE them, etc.
It's all very sad really. If I wouldn't be labeled even more crazy I could show you real world examples of this, that are public right now. It's not that hard to find them.
The audio for xbox live (other players) is off. . .because it is pretty much a truth that American parents do not teach any sort of online ettiqute or behavior rules.
I had no idea so many 13 year olds were racist idiots. . . And i'm playing MA17 games like Gears of War.
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