Do you let your kids have their own instagram account?

My kids are 7 and 9 and neither have any sort of accounts (thankfully they haven't asked either, lol). My neice, who is also 9, has FB and some other things.
 
No... mine are 7&4. They have no access to social media of any kind and I think I will keep it that way for a loooong time. ;)
 
I have a 8 year old daughter and she doesn't know what Instagram is. However she did ask me for a facebook account and youtub account. Facebook is a definite no, but her dad allowed her to have youtub account. She mainly watches kids shows and music videos.
 
My 14 yr old step daughter has an instagram and twitter no fb. My 12 yr old step daughter has none. And Kennedy of course has nothing lol
 
As I don't even have one, and we don't own any smart phones or iPads, there isn't really any point in any of us having one. As for FB and all that jazz, nope, not until they're old enough by the site's TOS. We've even disabled internet communication for chatting and such on their Playstation accounts.
 
Technically the Instagram TOU requires users to be at least 13. http://instagram.com/about/legal/terms/

The answer is that it's probably up to you but if all they're really interested in is the photos/filters aspect of Instagram, there's a lot of other apps that'll give you those options without requiring them to be shared by default to Instagram. 13 seems like a good age limit for sharing to me.
 
LOL, I figured most of the answers would be no, that was my gut feeling too. I did see the TOU......, Ashley's only 10 1/2 , but most of her friends her age have it already:thumbdown:, and she wants to be able to share her photos with her friends. It's so frustrating with social media and kids these days, especially when they have ipods. I hate having her feeling left out, and don't want to be the "mean" mom LOL....I've already given a firm NO to facebook (and yes, some of her friends have a facebook account too even though they are below the age stated in the TOU), Parenting sucks sometimes.
 
Mine are 10 and 5 and neither of them have access to any sort of social media. My 5 year old does like to pick out his own filters though whenever I use Instagram to take a photo of him. LOL!
 
cindys732003 said:
LOL, I figured most of the answers would be no, that was my gut feeling too. I did see the TOU......, Ashley's only 10 1/2 , but most of her friends her age have it already:thumbdown:, and she wants to be able to share her photos with her friends. It's so frustrating with social media and kids these days, especially when they have ipods. I hate having her feeling left out, and don't want to be the "mean" mom LOL....I've already given a firm NO to facebook (and yes, some of her friends have a facebook account too even though they are below the age stated in the TOU), Parenting sucks sometimes.
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My 9 year old does, but I said no to facebook and youtube. We're in the same situation where all his friends have it...
 
Lily is 10 but hasn't had an interest in social media yet thank goodness. She is pretty quiet/keeps to herself and doesn't have many girlfriends yet so we haven't had to deal with this new chapter but I'm sure we will soon.
 
Cheyanne just turned 13 and does have Instagram now. She hardly ever uses it but that will probably change in the near future. She has been using it this week to send pics back and forth to her brother and his wife and her niece because she's been bored. She is sooo ready to go back to school!
 
My 14 yo starting using Instagram last year and it's seriously almost a full time hobby for her. She loves photography and posting unique photos.

My 11 yo has shown no interest so for now, no Instagram. She does have FB but it's only to play games and only mom, dad and the grandparents are her friends. Plus she can only use it when she sits next to me. I think that will change now that she started middle school. We've talked a lot about what you put online and say in writing or typing is easy to pass around and will never be erased. So, hopefully she'll be using it responsibly under my watchful eye (oh, and once she does go live I make her friend all her aunts and uncles and our close friends so I'm not the only adult watching. I did this with my oldest and it worked great.)
 
My 9 year old girls have asked for Instagram and were told no. I don't use it so I'm not really sure what all is involved other than posting and sharing pictures. They have asked when they could have a FB account but didn't really care when my answer was never!
 
Elsye (13) has an instragram. The rules are that I have the password and that I'm her friend. At first she wouldn't add me.....so I took the liberty to start adding all her friends. hehe!! Now I'm friends with her AND her friends. LOL!!
 
Kjersti said:
Elsye (13) has an instragram. The rules are that I have the password and that I'm her friend. At first she wouldn't add me.....so I took the liberty to start adding all her friends. hehe!! Now I'm friends with her AND her friends. LOL!!
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LOL - I'm friends with all of Cheyanne's friends too and the same on FB - and all her friends parents are friends with her too - that's the rule in our group - all the kids have all the parents as friends :) (And I have her PW for both accounts and can check them at any time; no ifs, ands, or buts!)
 
No to instagram pretty much because I never use mine either. My kids (7 and 11) both have facebook accounts. They are basically my accounts. I manage passwords, friend requests, check their private messages, etc. They (very rarely these days after discovering minecraft) log in to play games. I use their facebook pages for those 'like this page and get a coupon' offers so I can use the other computers for extra coupons. LOL
 
My 11 year old niece doesn't have Facebook but my sister let her have an Instagram. She is using it like Facebook and does some things that I find irresponsible (like writing her phone number on a chalkboard, taking a picture and saying "text me"). I had to quit following her because it was driving me crazy that my sister wasn't putting a stop to it. I have always been a 13-before-you-can-use-social-media kind of parent. That's been a good guideline for my children. They're mature enough to understand the dangers of what they're putting online.
 
Mine are 9 and 7.. the 9 yr old has FB but I'm her friend.. some of my friends are her friends as well as the parents of the other friends she has.. other than that it's all family. She plays games and talks to a very small approved chat list. Instagram.. she's never asked.
 
My oldest is almost 10, but he hasn't shown any interest in social media yet. If his friends have accounts, I don't know about it. I'm glad it hasn't come up, because I'd say no. I also won't let him play video games that allow other gamers to connect with him, and he's probably going to protest that rule before the social media one. He isn't ready to think through how he comes off to others online, and I'm not on any of the sites often enough to feel like I'd be monitoring him adequately.
 
Jeffrey is 12, and my family DID break TOU on Instagram and Facebook. The compromise was that the email he registered with is connected to an email account my mom monitors carefully... and he has to agree to random spot-checks. Even if he deletes something on facebook (messages, etc), mom can view them through the emails sent to her (he does not have access to the email account).

We figured it was a fair compromise, considering most of his friends got social media far younger than he did, and with him being homeschooled, it's a better way for him to connect with his friends. Also, my mom doesn't use Instagram, but she said it was mandatory he keep his account private AND that he allow me to follow him-- so I can check up on what he's sharing.

Snapchat is the thing that scares me-- there's no real way to monitor that one.
 
Nikita is 14 now, and has had a FB, Instagram and Twitter account since her 13th birthday. I refused to violate the TOS which frustrated her endlessly
 
Don't ask me I'm totally "that mean mom", my girls (the oldest of my kids) are 15 and 11 and they have no FB, no instagram, no nothing!!! I *just* let my 15 year old get an email account and that's only because she needed it for school!! I figure if they need to contact someone or someone needs to contact them...pick up a phone and call!!! :p

:D :D :D
 
My 11 year old daughter has 2, one personal for people she knows, and one for minecraft pics. I must say though, that she is more mature than some kids her age and understands to keep things private. I'm not sure I'd let my 7 year old do what my 11 year old is doing when she gets that age.
 
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Mine are 9 & 10 and only have You Tube accounts I control. They watch Minecraft videos on it. DS1 wants a cell phone but only so he can play Minecraft on it & had I not botched my old phone by resetting (And now it want's a phone number to load) it I'd let him have it for that.

They don't have any tools to use Instagram. Some of their friends have iPads & various older phones that may or may not have cell service adn a few of them have Instagram or Facebook but most don't. Minecraft & You Tube seem to be the only things that most use.

We'll get the older one a phone next year when he starts middle school.

It'll be a dumb phone, not a smart phone. :)
 
My boys (8 and 10) don't have accounts, but my older son's friends have started following me which is really weird. I'm following some of them and am surprised at some of the content - while it's not totally inappropriate, if my boys put it up, it would be DELETED.
 
My 13 y.o. DD has an account. She is only allowed to "friend" her actual IRL friends and her account has to remain viewable only by her friends.

As far as I can tell, 90% of her posts (and those of her friends) are of Starbucks drinks. Not sure what the fascination is with that? I find it weird how many pictures she takes of herself on a regular basis. :)
 
My son is only 8 and has nothing, but the 2 daughters of one of our friends have IG accounts and follow me and I follow them. They are around my son's age (one younger, one older) and it is really very weird in my opinion. Girls are definitely different than boys.
 
My kids are still too young. I do know you have to be very involved if you let your kids into all of that. The one I heard to stay away from is snapchat.
 
My kids are 11, 10, 8, 6, and 5, and none have it. I am not against it at all, but they don't have their own tablets or smartphones, so obviously there is no way for them to use them. If Jennah or Gavin had a way to use instagram, I'd let them. Same with FB. I know that when they do have these things, I will have their passwords and be friends with them so there won't be anything I won't be monitoring. But for the foreseeable future, that probably won't happen as my kids have no reason to have smartphones at this point :) I told Jennah she can get a smartphone when she's 14, has a job, and pays her bill. Till then its just a luxury item that she doesn't need and I can't afford.
 
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