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Instagram: U13s’ No. 1 workaround?

September 10, 2012 By Anne 1 Comment

I first heard about this little social-networking giant when my then-14-year-old suddenly seemed to be taking a serious interest in photography. Since then, I’ve come to see Instagram as more like the next Facebook than just another cellphone app (FB was smart to acquire it!). It’s almost game-like because it blends photography and socializing in a playful way, and only partly because of all the fun filter options that, with a single click, can almost make a snapshot look like art (then click again to undo and try another look). Further adding to its appeal – and this is huge, now, especially for young people – is that it’s on their phones, making digital socializing much more accessible at school and everywhere else. Seems like pure genius to me (I’ve had fun playing with it too).

According to fellow parent Michelle Meyers at CNET, Instagram is also a major workaround for kids under 13 “kept off Facebook by their well-intended parents” – even though they’re supposed to be 13 to use Instagram too. Their Instagram use is even more elusive because mobile (and now available to Android phones as well as iPhone, iPads, etc.). Though most of them probably have nothing to hide (my son and his girlfriend both followed me the minute I set up my account, seemingly delighted I did), parents can encourage them to turn on the privacy setting that lets them pre-approve “follow requests” so that only their friends can follow them and see the photos they post – my ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid shows you how to do that and take a couple other privacy precautions at his SafeKids.com. As for the numbers, Michelle at CNET cites Nielsen data showing that Instagram is the No. 1 photo site among 12-to-17-year-olds, with “1 million teens visiting the site during July,” beating out Flickr, the No. 1 photo site overall (“Nielsen doesn’t categorize Instagram as a social network” site). [See also “Why Facebook for under-13s is a good idea” and “Parenting in the digital age: Major insights.”]

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Filed Under: mobile, Parenting, Social Media Tagged With: app, cellphones, Facebook, Instagram, mobile apps, social networking

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  1. Snapchat: Gamified Instagram, ephemeral Pinterest? | NetFamilyNews.org says:
    November 16, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    […] in the Instagram category – photos + text, only with a time element to it (more about Instagram here). And it’s kind of a perishable Pinterest, where photos are scrapbooked or placed into […]

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2016 TEDx Talk on
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IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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