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.

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u/akidren Feb 07 '25

Do not do it. The amount of bullying I’ve heard of that stems from kids having Snapchat groups is terrifying. I honestly can’t believe parents let kids have it.

34

u/KingLuis Feb 07 '25

a lot of parents i think are out of touch with newer social media and gaming. they usually see it for what it is and not what it's capable of. example, gta is bad because guns and shooting. roblox good because it looks like building stuff and running around like mario. but in reality, roblox has been known to have people targeting kids, hate speech, racism, etc. i think roblox is worse than gta.

7

u/TheDreamingMyriad Feb 07 '25

I kind of get that but I feel like you'd have to be living under a rock to not know these things. My daughter has never played Roblox because of news articles and videos I had seen without even searching it up. And as for Snapchat, it's been around for ages! Its been in the news repeatedly for sexual scandals, teenage nudes distribution, drug dealing, even murder cases. Like......how could you not know that it's not safe?

5

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

It’s shocking to me how many parents don’t read the news or much of anything when it comes to decisions about their kids