What’s The Right Age To Allow Your Kids Access To Social Media?

We were talking about this a while back on the radio after learning that Matthew McConaughey and his wife allowed their son to join Instagram for his 15th birthday. I respect that.

Having kids now in double digit age and soon to be negotiating teenage years, the pressure will be coming my way, although it probably already is.  

The line that we’ve heard and I’m sure a lot of other parents have heard is “My fiend (insert name here) already has (insert app/technology here)”. And you can fill those gaps with iPhone, iPad, YouTube account, Facebook, Insta… the list goes on.

Already my kids are talking with friends through games and technology like Zoom calls while playing games. What I like about that is I can hear what’s being said by the other kids, and more importantly by my own. For now, the danger of a stranger becoming involved is minimal. The messaging by typing worries me more, and we’ve had lots of conversations about that, how 12-year-old Johnny could actually be 53-year-old Peter who should be in jail.

You don’t want your kids being last to the party, but at the same time, you want to be making sure they’re smart enough to work through what’s going on once messages start coming in.

Really, it’s other people that I’m more concerned about. If my kids say or do something then I can do something about that, a stern talking to, grounding, changing the wifi password… but other people’s kids, that’s a different story.

I’m still not sure when I’ll be allowing these apps into my kids’ lives, but when it happens, I’ll be monitoring what’s said and sent to them, and what they’re saying.  

Scotty

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