Parents' Guide to

Snapchat

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Parents Say

age 14+

Based on 368 parent reviews

Parent Reviews

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age 12+

I have a 12 year old daughter and this would have helped me

I have a 12 year old daughter and when she asked me about snapchat my immediate reaction was no. But then I talked to my friend who is a teacher and she said while she has seen snapchat incidents, none of them prevented her from giving her kid snapchat. Certainly not something a responsible kid couldn't handle. This made me rethink. So, I got the app for a week and every day I checked it. Snapchat is made out to be a horror but it had nothing on the more dangerous SM like Instagram. Nothing bad came up. I gave my daughter Snapchat and since then I have been pleased with the results. Since getting Snapchat she has stopped asking me for other social media like instagram which is too dangerous for her and she hasn't been spending any more time on her phone. She has been happier because she can be more in tune with her friends. Snapchat has been good for her social life. Before giving her Snapchat though, I had her set her accounts to private and every so often I take her phone from her and check. Overall I am pleased with the results of Snapchat and trust my daughter to be okay.
44 people found this helpful.
age 11+

Trust is number one

I think that if you can trust your child and have a mature child, then this app has is definitely for your kid. I know that their is a dark side of Snapchat but my son uses it casually and has not had any problems (he was 12 when he got it but now he’s 14). I am very anti-social media and really fought with my son for a while and finally let him try out this app. After almost a year of asking I finally let him get it. And I realized that at a certain age keeping your kids away from this can hurt your child more than help them. I hope that parents considering can help be persuaded by this response. But again you have to trust your kid.
22 people found this helpful.
age 15+

Toxic Social Media

Snapchat is one of the most popular social media apps in the world, but is it good for communication? In my opinion, Snapchat is one of the worst apps ever. Snapchat is a horrible app because it sells the idea of fake friendships, because Snapstreaks are toxic, and because their notifications are designed to make you feel bad. The first reason Snapchat is a horrible app is because it rates your friendships to make you feel bad. For example, if you message someone a lot, but the person doesn’t message you back, Snapchat will still say you are “best friends.” This is stupid because real friends talk to each other and do things together. The big problem with this best friend rating system is that many teens take the best friends rating seriously, and get lonely or depressed when their “best friends” never talk to them. Even worse, Snapchat will show you an emoji that means your “best friend” is someone else’s “best friend” making teens want to compete with each other for friendships. How toxic is that? Speaking of toxic, the second reason Snapchat is awful is because of Snapstreaks. Snapstreaks are when two people send each other a picture of themselves every day. If you keep up Snapstreaks, you can get higher friendship ratings with the people you Snap with. Can you imagine if you had to take a picture of yourself and give it to your friends every day in order to become better friends? How unrealistic is that? The worst thing about Snapstreaks is that they make people believe in fake friendships. If you lose a Snapstreak, some people think you are breaking your friendship. For example, some people who have had over 100 day Snapstreaks end up arguing and stop being friends when someone forgets to send a photo on one day. How ridiculous is that? Sending each other pictures every day is not friendship. The last reason Snapchat is terrible is because its notifications are designed to make people feel bad. Let me explain! Snapchat will say the words, “delivered” when you send someone a Snap or a message, as well as how much time passes by without them looking at your message. When the person you sent a message to sees it, Snapchat will say the words “opened.” This is horrible because if you think someone is a good friend of yours, but you see that it’s been hours, or days since they’ve looked at your message, you will feel ignored. Now imagine that every time you talk to your “best friend”, above their head it says, “you sent a message but I am choosing not to respond to you.” How terrible would that feel? That’s what Snapchat notifications are like. As you can see, Snapchat is a terrible app. From friendship ratings, to Snapstreaks and notifications that tell you you’re being ignored, Snapchat is designed to make people feel bad about themselves, or to make people value fake friendships. If you are ever in a situation where you have to download Snapchat, remember that you don’t need that kind of toxic relationship in your life. Say no to abusive social media!
9 people found this helpful.
age 12+

Perfectly fine if you have a responsible kid READ THIS

I am the most anti-social media parent in the world but this app is perfectly ok if you have a kid that is responsible. I told my daughter no to tiktoc and Instagram but I have looked through this app and have found nothing bad. If you have a responsible child and they are using the app for only chatting then it is ok to use.
9 people found this helpful.
age 9+

A great communication device, fun filters

Snapchat is safe for anyone over 10, in my opinion. Snapchat has a lot of options where you can pick which friends you talk to, and whom can see your stories. There’s no issue with Snapchat besides a few questionable filters, and if you carefully pick who you talk to and don’t mind Snapscores or anything, it’s completely harmless and my two daughters love snapping back and forth! I downloaded it myself - there’s no problem, but it’s your kid, so I would recommend thinking carefully before downloading for your child.

This title has:

  • Great messages
  • Easy to play/use
6 people found this helpful.
age 13+

Overcriticized

First of all, I'm mostly anti-social media. I think that it is harmful to children to interact with random strangers. That being said, Snapchat is about as much of a social media as Whatsapp. You choose who you interact with, which makes it texting but with pictures. It is barely a social media, and is the main thing teens use to text. This is a social tool for your child. I've seen a lot of other parents saying how it's damaging and encourages deception but it didn't do that to my child. My child used to be deceptive but then turned around, I used to restrict him a lot but gave him a phone for his 13th birthday. Later in the year he asked for snapchat and said it was a chance to show his trustworthyness. He was feeling left out from his friends so i said yes but he had to "add" me so i could see things that he posted. It turned out fine. He still has it today. I think you should give your child a chance and if they do poorly take it away.

This title has:

  • Easy to play/use
6 people found this helpful.
age 18+

Why not just use a regular text app

The whole premise of this app is to HIDE information from others, including parents! Why not use a regular texting app or one that automatically forwards all text to you. Parents, stop being a "Yes" parent and realize that there is NOTHING that should EVER be hidden from your review and evaluation! Say NO to Snapchat! This review system forces me to include an appropriate age for kids. I say that no kid should have it and there is no reason for adults to have it either.
5 people found this helpful.
age 13+

Fix the Bitmoji

I hate the new Bitmoji please make them go back to 2d they are ugly fix them
3 people found this helpful.
age 12+

PARENTS LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY

Ok so I have two kids of the ages of 12 and 13 years old. I am a strong Christen parent who cares about my kids with all my heart and they were begging me for this app. Well I am very anti-social media and at first I said no to them. They are very social and sweet kids and they have many friends. Almost all of their friends are messaging on this app and only a few were not. Now I realized that my kids were not getting as many texts on their phones and I asked them if everything was ok and they said that nobody in the generation texts, they all snap. Now this was when I looked a little deeper into this and talked to some of my kids, friends moms and they all told me that there kids are very safe on Snapchat and they are not addicted but they just use it as the next text messaging. They said it is an appropriate app for young teens. I learned that kids have to accept follow requests just like instagram and they cannot just be messaged by anyone on there and snapchat has privacy features and it is not as bad as some parents might say. I even got the app myself to check it out and I could not find anything wrong. You have to trust your kids and it is your decision whether or not you get it but I advise you that it is appropriate for young teens and the app is helping my children become closer with there friends and it is pretty fun. I would tell parents it is ok for 12+. I hope this review helps.
3 people found this helpful.
age 18+

Child pornography -- difficult to cancel

Child predators are out in force and snapchat is a breeding ground for them; your child will not be safe on snapchat. Snapchat does not protect our children, you cannot just cancel account. Their entire business model is based on more users. So in that sense they encourage anyone to join. There are private room where monitoring software cannot access, e.g., Bark. BE AWARE of snap. I attempted to get help from them and they will not help.

This title has:

  • Too much violence
  • Too much sex
  • Too much swearing
3 people found this helpful.

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