POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA According to a survey by Common Sense Media and Survey Monkey, teens don’ t like Facebook as much as Snapchat or Instagram, with more than three-quarters of teens saying they use both messaging apps.
There’ s no real consensus among experts on the right age to buy a smartphone. During a2017interview Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said all threeofhis kids waited until they were 14. Campaigns like Wait Until8th urge parents to wait until their children get to the eighthgrade.
Ultimately, the decision couldcome down to whether parents think their child is mature enoughtohandlea smartphone, says Scott Steinberg, author of Parenting High-TechKids: The Ultimate Internet, Web, & Online Safety Guide.
“ When they’ re going to be so far outside your oversight or outside of ready accessibility, when they start going off doing activities, camps, or they need to be able to get in touch with you but can’ t, that’ sa possibility for when you can introduce it,” says Steinberg.
USE YOUR PHONE’ S PARENTAL CONTROLS
Depending on the device, parents can set restrictions to limitwhat their children can access on that new smartphone.
DOES YOUR KID HAVE A‘ FINSTA’ ACCOUNT?
Most of us are aware of Instagram, the popular photo sharing app leaving us taking pics of our food or creating that dramatic selfie. But have you ever heard of the“ finsta,” acombination of the words“ fake” and“ Instagram” used to represent someone’ s hidden, personal account?
The“ finsta” is a second Instagram account many users will maintain, and its content is quite different from their real(“ rinsta”) account. Think of the“ rinsta” as a public persona, where users will share curated images, whereas a“ finsta” is a more unfiltered experience.
A user’ s real Instagram might have several thousand followers, but a“ finsta” features a much smaller following, consisting mostly of friends and family.
Should parents worry? Social media coach Laura Tierney says today’ s parents shouldn’ t fear the“ finsta,” so long as they’ re aware of what their children post, even if it’ s private.
“ Even if you are hiding behind ausername not associated with your name, who is to say that someone can’ t screenshot it and post it to the Internet and have that be tied to your name in a Google search result,” says Tierney.
For the iPhone, go to Settings, then General, then scroll down to Restrictions. When you first enable restrictions, the device will ask you to create afour-digit PIN.
Restrictions allow parentstocontrol everythingfrom what apps kids can open to whether theycan make purchases within apps. Users can also adjust the type of content kids can view based on ratings.
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32 SPRING 2018 |( 201) FAMILY