3 social media apps your child can use today

Your child has reached the age of 10 or 11. And by now, they have developed a natural curiosity about the world of social media.

It's an exciting time in their life, as social media offers the opportunity to keep up with their favourite celebrities, watch their favourite cartoons and creators, and chat to their friends from the offline world.

As a parent, you may have concerns about allowing your child to use social media for the first time. Trying to keep track of their cyber safety, who they’re interacting with, and the various risks associated with specific social media platforms can be a real challenge – especially when managing a busy household.

But don’t worry. Social media doesn’t have to be scary. Especially if you, and your child, are aware of the risks.

In this blog, we’ve scored three of the most popular social media apps for 10-11 year olds across the key areas of cyber safety risk (cyberbullying, stranger danger, screentime, violence and inappropriate content) so you don’t have to. ‍

Snapchat

Snapchat’s multi-media messaging features, fun filters, and customisable avatars (or ‘Bitmojis’) make it a popular app amongst youngsters.

However, there are some features that could potentially be risky for your child, and these are important to be aware of before allowing them to set up an account.

‘Snapstreaks’, for example, reward users for messaging each other every day without ‘breaking the streak’. These types of features are cleverly designed to keep users active on the app for longer periods of time, which could potentially lead to excessive amounts of screentime, if not moderated.

Snapchat also allows users to add friends by searching their username, or through mutual connections, also has an option to show their live location via the ‘Snap Map’ feature. It’s important to consistently monitor the location settings on your child’s Snapchat account, as well as their friend list, to ensure strangers and other bad actors are kept at bay.

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YouTube

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YouTube offers a wide variety of content for pretty much every age group, and your 10-11 year-old is no exception. While it’s less ‘social’ than some of the other platforms, and predominantly used for streaming, it’s not without its risks for younger users.

Features such as autoplay and YouTube Shorts can encourage prolonged viewing sessions and screentime, and the sheer volume of content uploaded to the site every minute means the risk of some graphic or violent material being made available can never truly be ruled out.

It’s important to ensure all the necessary parental controls and restricted modes are switched on in your child’s settings, and that you regularly check in with them to ensure they are not viewing content explicit language or adult themes.

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TikTok

TikTok is often celebrated as ‘the youth’s social media app’. Known for its viral dance challenges and funny comedy skits, the predominantly video-based platform is a great place for your child to start expressing themselves creatively, or engage with content that appeals to their passions and interests (music, art, science, and more). It can also be a great source of education, or inspiration to take up a new hobby or skill.

That said, some features of TikTok to keep an eye on from a safety perspective include comments, ‘stitches’ and ‘duets’, which allow other users to provide opinions on your child’s videos. Although these features create a nice opportunity for friends to engage positively with your child on TikTok, it’s important to monitor and check in with them to ensure they are not being used for cyberbullying, peer pressure, or online harassment.  

And while it’s great to have access to fun, engaging content, just be mindful not to let TikTok’s endless stream (‘for you page’) and auto-scroll features develop into an unhealthy habit of high screentime.

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To learn more…

Each social media app comes with its own set of benefits, as well as challenges, for you and your child. We believe embracing social media is the way forward, but taking time to understand the cyber risks for kids first, is essential.

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