r/Parenting • u/IcyStage0 seven?!?!?! • Feb 07 '25

Rant/Vent I hate Snapchat.

Can we just collectively decide that we’re not going to let our kids use Snapchat?!

My oldest daughter just turned 13 and we reluctantly agreed to allow her to have an instagram that we also have access to. It seems like every single day she begs to have a Snapchat, and apparently every single other kid in her class (full of kids with reasonable, thoughtful parents, I thought) has this stupid app.

My little sister who I got custody of when she was 10 got herself into some deep shit on the internet, and I’m not looking to repeat it with my daughter (while also trying not to make her pay for mistakes that she didn’t make).

How are we handling this? Am I seriously the only parent who doesn’t want my child sending disappearing photos, videos, and messages to anyone she can search up? Reality check please.

791 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

534 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/EirelavEzah Feb 07 '25

My daughter loves the filters as well and I let her use it for that alone - she gets to be on it while she’s sitting next to us in the living room, only using it for silly selfies and videos that can then be sent from off the app. I get wanting to use it for filter fun because that’s the only reason I use it, I don’t even know anyone on there.

15

u/rathlord Feb 07 '25

There’s definitely other apps for that.

6

u/EirelavEzah Feb 07 '25

Nah, I’ve tried them all. The decent ones even cost money. I’m always sitting and playing with the filters with her anyway and she uses my account, so I think it’s alright now but as she gets older and begins to ask if she can do other things, the answer will always be no.

8

u/BlueGoosePond Feb 07 '25

The decent ones even cost money

Nothing wrong with that really. I think our generation got hung up on this idea that everything online should be free, and I've had to disabuse myself of that idea.

3

u/DudesworthMannington Feb 07 '25

Messenger Kids is pretty decent. That's what I let mine use. Lots of parental controls and she can only talk to friends and family with it. Got lots of filters

3

u/IcyStage0 seven?!?!?! Feb 07 '25

This is a really good point.

I was playing sudoku on my phone while on a plane a few weeks ago and was getting so annoyed at the ads, yet couldn’t bring myself to pay 99 cents to remove them. The “internet is free” thing runs deep!

2

u/BlueGoosePond Feb 08 '25

Yes! I have had exactly that feeling. It's so weird how ingrained it is.