Is Social Media Safe for Young Kids?

As research consistently confirms, kids are suffering as “body shaming, trolling, bullying, racism, and targeted advertising” are all social media norms that are connected to major issues for kids today. 

Many parents struggle to know what to do about social media for their kids. It’s a challenge for sure, but not one that can’t be overcome.

Let’s start by taking a look at some apps parents should be aware of, then consider the motivations of social media companies, how these apps impact our children, and then run through some tips for families.

20 Especially Risky Social Media Apps for Kids

Navigating the digital landscape as a parent can be challenging, especially with so many apps available to kids today. The alphabetical list below highlights some of the most popular apps that pose potential risks, but it is by no means comprehensive.

Discord

Originally designed for gamers to communicate during gameplay, Discord has evolved into a popular platform for group chats on various topics. It allows users to create or join servers (chat groups) based on shared interests.

Private Messaging: Yes. 

Parental Controls: Discord offers some parental control options, such as limiting who can send friend requests. 

Risks: Discord’s servers often contain unmoderated content, including explicit language, graphic images, and inappropriate discussions. The anonymity and ease of joining servers make it a target for online predators who may pose as peers. Additionally, the platform’s private messaging system can be exploited for grooming or sharing explicit content.

Read our full article: Is Discord Safe for Kids?

Facebook

Despite its age restrictions (13+), Facebook remains widely used by younger teens. It includes features like status updates, photo sharing, and groups. 

Private Messaging: Yes, via Facebook Messenger. 

Parental Controls: Facebook offers some tools like activity reports and friend request oversight, but these require setting up Facebook accounts for teens and monitoring their activity closely. 

Risks: Teens can be exposed to misinformation, cyberbullying, and online predators through messaging or public posts. The vast network of users and the ease of connecting with strangers increase these risks. In addition, the platform’s algorithms may expose users to harmful or misleading content.

Read our full article: Is Facebook Safe? A Guide for Parents

Gas

Description: Gas is a social app designed to boost users’ self-esteem by allowing them to anonymously compliment others. 

Private Messaging: No. 

Parental Controls: Gas has limited parental controls. The app focuses on anonymity, making parental oversight challenging. 

Risks: While the app aims for positivity, it can lead to feelings of exclusion or social pressure if not all users receive compliments. The anonymous nature of the compliments can also lead to manipulation or unhealthy comparisons among peers, particularly if users become obsessed with receiving positive feedback.

Read our full article: What is the Gas App & Is it Safe for Kids?

Holla

Description: A live video chat app that randomly connects users from around the world. 

Private Messaging: Not in the traditional sense, but video chats are private and unmoderated. 

Parental Controls: None, making it very difficult to monitor or control interactions. 

Risks: Holla is notorious for exposing users to explicit content and inappropriate interactions. The random nature of the connections means children can be paired with strangers who may have harmful intentions. The lack of moderation further exacerbates these risks.

Instagram

A highly popular app for sharing photos and videos, often used by teens to connect with friends and follow celebrities or influencers. 

Private Messaging: Yes, through Instagram Direct. 

Parental Controls: Instagram offers some parental controls, including time management tools and message filters. 

Risks: Instagram is known for issues like cyberbullying, exposure to inappropriate content, and the pressure to conform to unrealistic beauty standards. The platform’s algorithms can also lead teens to harmful content, such as extreme dieting, self-harm material, scams, and connecting them to pedophiles. Private messaging can be used for grooming or sharing explicit content.

Read more detail on the risks of Instagram through each of our linked articles in the paragraph above.

Kik

A messaging app known for its anonymity, allowing users to chat with anyone around the world without revealing their identity. 

Private Messaging: Yes, exclusively. 

Parental Controls: None, making it impossible for parents to monitor interactions. 

Risks: Kik is frequently used by predators to contact minors due to its lack of identity verification. The app has been linked to numerous cases of inappropriate content sharing and exploitation. The anonymous nature of the app makes it particularly dangerous for children.

Read our full article: What is Kik? A Quick Guide

Lemon8

A lifestyle app where users share photos and tips related to beauty, food, travel, and more. 

Private Messaging: No. 

Parental Controls: Lemon8 has limited parental controls. The app’s primary focus is on content sharing, not interaction. 

Risks: While Lemon8 appears harmless, the app can expose children to idealized lifestyles, potentially leading to issues like body image concerns or materialism. As with other content-sharing platforms, there is a risk of encountering inappropriate material, particularly if children explore content beyond their age group.

Read our full article: Lemon8: The Latest Social Media Craze

MeetMe

A social networking and dating app that connects users with strangers based on proximity or shared interests. 

Private Messaging: Yes. 

Parental Controls: None. 

Risks: MeetMe’s primary function is to connect strangers, which makes it extremely risky for children. The app has been used by predators to find and groom young victims. The lack of moderation and parental controls further heightens these dangers.

Read more on MeetMe in our article: 3 Trending Teen Dating Apps Parents Should Know About

Omegle

Description: A platform for chatting with strangers via text or video, famous for its tagline “Talk to strangers!” 

Private Messaging: The chats themselves are private and can be screen-recorded. 

Parental Controls: None. 

Risks: Omegle is notorious for exposing users to explicit content and inappropriate interactions. The platform’s anonymity and lack of moderation mean that children can easily encounter sexual predators or be exposed to graphic content.

Read our full article: What is Omegle? And What Makes It So Dangerous?

Pinterest

Description: A visual discovery engine often used for finding inspiration for various projects, from home decor to fashion. 

Private Messaging: Yes. 

Parental Controls: Pinterest has limited controls, including safe search features. 

Risks: Although Pinterest is generally seen as harmless, children can stumble upon inappropriate content, including pornography. The platform’s algorithm can also inadvertently lead users to disturbing or harmful content, even if they start with innocent searches.

Read our full article: Is Pinterest Safe for Kids?

Reddit

A forum-based platform where users can join communities (subreddits) on virtually any topic. 

Private Messaging: Yes, through Reddit’s direct messaging feature. 

Parental Controls: Yes, but controls are limited. Some communities are marked NSFW (Not Safe For Work), but access is not strictly controlled. 

Risks: Reddit’s vast range of topics includes many that are inappropriate for children, including adult content, drug discussions, and violent material. The anonymity of users and the platform’s minimal moderation make it easy for children to be exposed to harmful content or engage in adult discussions.

Read our full article: Is Reddit Safe for Kids?

Roblox

A gaming platform where users can create and play games created by others, popular with children and teens. 

Private Messaging: Yes, depending on the game, private messaging may be available through in-game chat and direct messages. 

Parental Controls: Roblox offers parental controls to limit chat and restrict access to certain games. 

Risks: While Roblox is designed for children, its chat feature can expose them to inappropriate content, online predators, and scams. Some games may contain violent or sexual content that is not always filtered out by Roblox’s moderation system. Additionally, there are risks associated with in-game purchases and peer pressure.

Read our full article: Is Roblox Safe for Kids? A Parent’s Guide

Snapchat

A messaging app known for its disappearing messages, popular among teens for sharing photos and videos.

Private Messaging: Yes, through snaps and chat. 

Parental Controls: Snapchat has limited parental controls, and its ephemeral nature makes monitoring difficult. 

Risks: Snapchat’s disappearing messages make it a popular tool for sharing explicit content, often referred to as “sexting.” The app is also associated with cyberbullying, the sharing of inappropriate material, and connecting users with drug dealers. Additionally, the Snap Map feature can reveal a user’s location, posing further risks.

Read our full article: Is Snapchat Safe for Kids?

Telegram

An encrypted messaging app that allows users to send texts, images, and videos securely. 

Private Messaging: Yes, with end-to-end encryption. 

Parental Controls: None. 

Risks: Telegram is often used for sharing content that could be inappropriate or dangerous, as its encryption makes it difficult for authorities to monitor. The app’s private messaging and secret chat features can be used by predators to groom children or share explicit content.

TikTok

A short-form video app that has taken the world by storm, especially among younger audiences. 

Private Messaging: Yes, but only for users who follow each other.

Parental Controls: TikTok offers a Family Pairing feature that allows parents to manage screen time, limit content, and control messaging. 

Risks: TikTok’s algorithm can expose children to inappropriate content, including sexually suggestive material, dangerous challenges, and extreme ideologies. The pressure to create and share content can also lead to issues like cyberbullying and body image concerns. Privacy and data collection practices on the app have also raised concerns, leading to a potential ban of the app in the United States.

Read our full article: Is TikTok Safe for Kids?

Twitch

A live-streaming platform primarily used for watching video games, but also includes streams on other topics. 

Private Messaging: Yes, through Twitch’s chat feature.

Parental Controls: Twitch has limited controls. Parents can set up chat filters, but these are not comprehensive. 

Risks: Twitch streams are live, meaning that inappropriate content can appear without warning. Children may also encounter online predators in chat rooms, and the pressure to gain followers can lead to risky behavior or exposure to toxic communities.

Read our full article: Is Twitch Safe for Kids?

WhatsApp

A messaging app that allows users to send texts, images, and videos, widely used worldwide. 

Private Messaging: Yes, with end-to-end encryption. 

Parental Controls: None directly within the app, but monitoring tools are available through third-party apps. 

Risks: WhatsApp’s encrypted messaging makes it a popular choice for cyberbullying, sharing explicit content, or spreading misinformation. The app’s group chat feature can also expose children to harmful content from multiple sources simultaneously, often without the oversight of an adult.

Read our full article: Is WhatsApps Safe for Kids?

YikYak

An anonymous social media platform where users can post messages that are visible to others within a specific geographic radius, typically within 1 to 5 miles. 

Private Messaging: No, the platform is primarily focused on public, anonymous posts. 

Parental Controls: None. The anonymity and public nature of the posts make it difficult for parents to monitor or control what their children are posting or reading. 

Risks: The anonymity provided by YikYak often leads to cyberbullying, harassment, and the spread of harmful or offensive content. Users can post anything without revealing their identity, which encourages toxic behavior and makes it challenging to hold anyone accountable. The app’s local focus can also lead to real-world conflicts or bullying among users in the same area. For parents, the main concern is that their children may be exposed to or participate in harmful discussions without any oversight.

Read our full article: What is YikYak?

YouTube

YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform globally, offering a vast array of content, including educational videos, entertainment, and user-generated content. 

Private Messaging: YouTube previously had a direct messaging feature, but it has been discontinued. However, users can still communicate via comments. 

Parental Controls: YouTube offers parental control options through YouTube Kids and Restricted Mode, which can filter out inappropriate content. 

Risks: Despite YouTube’s efforts to moderate content, children can easily stumble upon videos that are inappropriate, contain extremist views, or promote harmful behaviors. Even videos that seem child-friendly can be manipulated to include disturbing content. Additionally, targeted advertising can expose children to products or ideas that are not age-appropriate. The comment section of videos can also be a breeding ground for cyberbullying or exposure to harmful discussions. 

Read our full article: Is YouTube Safe for Kids?

Yubo

Yubo is often referred to as “Tinder for teens,” a social networking app designed to help users make new friends through live streaming and swiping to connect with others. 

Private Messaging: Yes, users can message each other privately once they have connected. 

Parental Controls: Yes, though controls are limited. 

Risks: Yubo’s design, which mimics dating apps, encourages teens to connect with strangers, which can expose them to online predators. The app’s live-streaming feature is particularly risky, as it allows users to broadcast themselves in real-time to an audience that could include adults with malicious intent. The pressure to gain followers or engage in live streams can lead to risky behavior or exposure to inappropriate content. Additionally, the private messaging feature can be exploited by predators to groom children or solicit explicit material.

Read more on Yubo in our article: 3 Trending Teen Dating Apps Parents Should Know About

The best approach is to make decisions tailored to your child’s maturity level, maintain open conversations with your children, and stay informed about the apps they use. Technology offers a lot of benefits but those need to be weighed against the risks, and that process is different for every family and child.

Social Media Motivations

Social media companies routinely put product growth above our children’s basic online safety. 

They make quite a profit by identifying children, gathering user data, tracking user screen time, and selling all of this data to advertisers. Children are then specifically targeted, often with content that damages them.

We now know [Facebook] chooses the growth of its products over the well-being of our children.

—Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut

Social media is created to keep our kids engaged — more time means more revenue. The sooner these platforms can hook young children, the more they can maximize profits. 

Social Media Has Begun Targeting Very Young Audiences

The social media industry is constantly developing new apps for younger and younger kids to increase profit, even though these apps can lead to depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem in preschoolers. 

Parents now wonder whether apps directed at young children put them at risk or are a developmental benefit. 

Spoiler alert — the platforms can cause harm in some way — developmentally, emotionally, and physically.

Social Media Dangers

Social media apps can expose our kids to bullying, encourage obesity, interrupt sleep patterns, foster comparisons, and lead to damaging mental health disorders — to name a few. 

The best way to protect our kids from harm is to educate ourselves about the risks.

Social media makes it easy to compare oneself to another. Most people put on social media what they want you to see . . . that can be very hard for kids.

—Kate Eshleman, PsyD, Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health, Cleveland Clinic Main Campus

For these reasons, introducing a safe device without the internet or social media apps can provide a gradual “tech in steps” experience tailored to a child’s age and maturity level. 

Parental Controls on Social Media Do Not Work

Many social media apps include age ratings, but they are arbitrary, under-enforced by platforms, and misleading parents regarding the safety they can expect. They don’t help protect kids. 

Children may lie about their age to use the apps or use a family member’s account, making it hard to protect them from objectionable content. 

When settings were put to the test by researchers, all age groups could easily reach inappropriate or harmful content.

This puts all the responsibility back onto parents, who can’t be everywhere 24/7 to oversee or protect their children from online harm. 

Misleading and inadequate social media privacy controls are difficult to combat when parents are also dealing with limited time, insufficient access, or few resources at their disposal.

Social media companies have consistently shown systemic disregard for privacy and security protections. 

Knowing about these issues doesn’t inspire confidence that our children can be kept safe.

Social Media Has Addictive Effects

Because of how the brain works, social media is physically and mentally *addictive. 

Even talking about yourself on social media activates the same part of the brain that ignites when taking an addictive substance.

Young children are at even greater risk for harm due to their still-developing brains and emerging social skills.

*Although problematic screen time and social media use are not yet categorized as behavioral addictions, the emerging research and anecdotal evidence indicate that it is soon likely to be classified as addictive.

Social Media Encourages Exploitation

Not only are our children left unprotected on social media, but their physical, mental, and emotional development is compromised and exploited to promote growth and profit.

Leaked documents show that social media companies see our young children as an untapped “lucrative market”. 

The truth is that Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and other companies are looking for continual growth. Tapping the elementary school set helps ensure a stable of new users who will graduate quickly to the platforms’ most profitable properties.

-Greg Bensinger, New York Times

Facebook researchers recently observed young children ignoring their newest app during playdates to interact with other kids. 

Rather than encourage this healthy behavior, Facebook plans to create more products for this “valuable but untapped audience” that “can’t be ignored”. 

Social media uses our children to drive growth and profit.

Social Media Damages Relationships

While social platforms can provide positive connections, they can also encourage hate, foster extreme biases, and disseminate misinformation freely. 

These are influences that young children would have difficulty recognizing as dangerous. 

Further, children who habitually use social media from a young age have severely stunted social interaction skills, worsened social anxiety in groups, higher rates of depression, higher incidence of negative body image, and lowered levels of empathy and compassion toward others.

A recent Harvard University report found that social media has a “detrimental effect on emotional well-being and . . . negatively impacts real-life relationships and academic achievement.”

Social Media Apps for Younger Users Are Harmful

Although some apps are designed for younger children, they have not been tested to see if they are safe. Experts recommend avoiding them. 

Early Social Media Use is Detrimental

Using social media at a young age can dramatically impact brain development, have detrimental effects on digital behaviors, compromise physical well-being, and harm the cognitive functioning of young kids. 

27% of children who spend 3+ hours on social media exhibit symptoms of poor mental health.

Typically, apps geared toward youth encourage children to gravitate toward the corresponding adult version of the apps — where the “cool, adult stuff happens” to “hook ‘em young”. 

Young Kids Gravitate Toward the Original Apps

A recent poll showed that 81% of kids aged 11 or younger still watch videos on YouTube, with 35% regularly watching despite the existence of YouTube Kids and frequent encounters (61%) with unsuitable content. 

Clearly, apps geared toward the very young aren’t the solution.

What Age is Right for Social Media?

Deciding the right age for your child to start using social media is a challenging decision for many parents. While most social media platforms require users to be at least 13 years old, this age threshold is not necessarily a reliable indicator of readiness. Many younger children find ways to access these platforms, and even among teens, maturity levels can vary significantly.

The American Psychological Association (APA) highlights that a child’s developing brain processes social media interactions — such as “likes” and comments — differently than an adult’s brain, which has a more stable sense of self. This can make young users particularly vulnerable to the emotional highs and lows that come with online validation, or the lack thereof.

Recent concerns have been amplified by the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on youth mental health, which emphasizes that social media use is linked to several mental health challenges in young people.

According to the advisory, the excessive use of social media can contribute to anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness, especially when it becomes a primary source of social interaction. The Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has urged parents to consider the potential risks, including exposure to harmful content and the impact on sleep, self-esteem, and overall well-being. 

Parents are encouraged to assess their child’s emotional maturity, resilience, and ability to handle negative online experiences. Open communication about the potential downsides of social media, along with setting clear boundaries and monitoring usage, can help mitigate some of these risks.

Ads are designed to manipulate kids

Even if kids use pared-down versions of adult apps, they can still be hit with targeted advertising and fall prey to data collection schemes — just like everyone else. 

With the children’s app space being referred to as the “Wild West”, parents might not realize that apps geared toward young children are “littered with ads”. 

A recent poll showed that 50% of 10-12s and 33% of 7-9s use social media apps.

—Kate Eshleman, PsyD, Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health, Cleveland Clinic Main Campus

In a recent study reviewing over 100 popular Google Play apps aimed at kids under 5, researchers found numerous ad types classified as “manipulative,” “deceptive,” and “disruptive”. 

This trend was especially prevalent with free apps, as these are downloaded more frequently and include significantly more ads.

Harmful access

While 33% of kids ages 5 to 7 have [access to] at least onesocial media account and 60% of kids ages 8 to 11 own an account, the data clearly shows that social media access can have detrimental effects on children of any age.

Social media outlets expose children to numerous threats, including online grooming, cyberbullying, privacy threats, scams, and malware attacks.

Even if platforms boast positive benefits, they can still create unhealthy habits and impact our children’s social-emotional development.

Tips for Parents: Social Media Alternatives

Remember to be patient with yourself. Going against the norm of allowing kids access to “everything social media” is difficult for any parent. 

The good news is that social media use is a choice that parents and children can make together at any time. 

For a helpful guide on improving your family’s digital health, visit the Start website.

Which apps on our list of dangerous social media apps concern you the most, and why? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.