How Old Should Kids be to Start Using Social Media? (Finn)

 The dangers of social media are defined differently by everyone. For parental guardians in specific, an important question to ask yourself is how old your child should be to start using social media. It’s especially important to recognize that parents or legal guardians sometimes don’t know what may come with the trendiest apps – so, what exactly should kids be using?

    Let's start with my personal experience: I started using social media at as young as 9. My first experience online was with YouTube, one of the most recognizable social media apps for its wide variety of content. However, it wasn’t long till I was restricted to YouTube Kids after my mom decided the normal app wasn’t appropriate for my age. A few years later at 11 years old, I found out about the new trendy app, TikTok. I begged my mom for the app when it first blew up and I eventually was able to make a private account with some content restrictions. I loved TikTok, and I posted videos to my friends and I scrolled for hours on end. The question is, was this really appropriate for my age?

    In my opinion, it truly depends on the app to decipher whether or not your child should be scrolling. It’s important to not look over the age guidelines for certain social media apps, even if it doesn’t seem accurate enough to trust. Different apps have different content, so deciding the “age limit” for social media as a whole isn’t possible because it’s hard to label every social media app. Personally, I think children under the ages of 13 should probably not be using TikTok. When it comes to something like YouTube, I think it’s better off for kids to use the YouTube Kids app until they are around 10 or 11. Aside from that, recognizing that an app like Twitter is going to be much more harmful than an app like Pinterest will help you be able to decipher what your child should be scrolling on when they get their first device.

    With that, as a parent you should always know what your child is using and how you feel about it. Ask yourself what you worry about for your child and how you feel when it comes to your child using certain apps. Educate yourself, and make sure you know what content your child could be subjected to when they open the apps on their phone.