Popular Photo-Sharing Apps Demystified: New Instagram/Snapchat Guides for Parents

It's hard not to notice the growing popularity of photo-sharing apps such as Instagram and Snapchat these days — especially among young people.

Instagram, which launched in 2010, today boasts 100 million active monthly users who send 40 million photos per day. Snapchap, not even two years in existence, saw a threefold increase in users between December and April alone — to over 150 million photos (or "snaps") per day.

That's an awful lot of photos being shared. For parents and other adults who are rightly concerned about protecting the safety and reputations of kids who use these apps, ConnectSafely has come to the rescue. This month, the Internet safety nonprofit released two new guides — the "Parents' Guide to Instagram" and "Parents' Guide to Snapchat" — that walk adults through the apps' privacy and safety features and advise talking with kids about these new favorite tools "with genuine interest, not fear."

The two guides join ConnectSafely's earlier parents' guide to Facebook and to Google+. (You can find all four guides here.)

Each one starts by addressing some basic questions adults often ask: "Why do kids love Instagram?" "What are the risks in using Instagram?" "Should my child's profile be private?"

They go on to cover such topics as controlling your own privacy and respecting that of others; managing profiles (on Instagram) and settings (on Snapchat); and reporting inappropriate photos and abuse. They each offer basic reminders about not sharing embarrassing photos you wouldn't want a college admissions officer — or Grandma — to see. Each also covers what to do if you're being harassed.



Snapchat, which allows users to send photos that can self-delete within 10 seconds, has been criticized as a "sexting" app, a notion its creators are quick to dismiss. And so the new Snapchat guide touches on sexting too (it notes that while sexting is a concern, "it's not nearly as common as some media reports have suggested").

The guide also explains how Snapchat photos don't necessarily delete and can in fact be captured in different ways by savvy recipients. (See these recent stories on Snapchat's not-so-disappearing photos in Forbes and the Huffington Post.) 



Each guide ends with some encouraging words for parents. From the Instagram guide: "... research shows that socializing face-to-face is still No. 1 with teens," even as new apps and services for digital socializing seem to pop up by the minute. And from the Snapchat guide:

"... there's no need to panic every time you hear a media report about something awful happening in social media. The reason the news media cover awful situations is because they're rare. How often do you read about planes landing safely?... Of course kids can get into trouble using Snapchat or any other service, but the same can be said for swimming pools. That's why we teach them how to swim."

So take heart: If you help kids to learn their own critical thinking and media literacy skills, they'll be more prepared to navigate any potentially deep waters.

For more on the growing appeal of Snapchat in particular, see this recent New York Times profile.

For more on the explosion of short-term photo-sharing services generally, and other key Internet trends of 2013, see this new report by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers from the AllThingsD D11 Conference yesterday. (This chart shows Snapchat's growth from May 2012 to April 2013.)

From the 2013 Internet Trends report by KPCB

Oh, and check out ConnectSafety's post from earlier this week on the release of the 20th anniversary edition of "Child Safety on the Information Highway," a booklet on Internet safety first published when "the Information Highway" was a phrase people actually used. Written by Larry Magid, co-director of ConnectSafety and founder of SafeKids.com (and co-author of the new Instagram and Snapchat parent guides), the updated "Child Safety" guide (found here) covers harassment and bullying, online privacy and security issues, and more. Another great tool at your fingertips for keeping kids safe and savvy online.

Sneaking a Peek: Is It OK to Read Your Kids' Text Messages?

When does parenting become spying? It's a question that comes up often in this age of mobile kids with virtual social lives. But the answer is rarely straightforward.

A parent recently asked Common Sense Media (CSM) if it's OK for parents to read their kids' texts to make sure they're not getting into trouble. The response, by CSM's parenting editor Caroline Knorr, was a bit nuanced.

In short, Knorr wrote, it's essential to discuss responsible cell phone behavior with your children — and do this in the beginning, when you first hand a child a phone — and to set consequences for breaking the rules. And yes, you need to keep an eye on their cell phone behavior. But as far as outright reading their texts? "There's no absolute right answer here," Knorr wrote. "It depends on your kid's age, personality, and behavior."

Some behaviors will set off louder alarm bells than others. Changes to a child's appearance or actions could mean something is up. If you suspect that your child is going through something bad but won't talk about it, Knorr says, you may have "probable cause" for peeking at texts.

The links throughout Knorr's piece to other CSM articles offer further advice about sexting, responsible texting, setting cellphone use rules and deciding what devices to give your kids when — do they really need a cell phone with texting? At what age? Knorr's "Parents' Guide to Kids and Cell Phones" is a great place to start for help with these questions and many more. See the CSM article "Are You Spying on Your Kid?" too, on walking that fine line between protecting your children and invading their privacy.

And read what some kids had to say in the comments sections, too. "Parents, it's true that we do treat phones like diaries," writes one 13-year-old. "If you go through them without asking, it offends us a little that you don't have trust in us." This young person said it's OK for his or her parents to read texts as long as they ask first. "I love them, but I'd rather they not just read them whenever they feel like it."

Then there's the 11-year-old who simply answered the "Is it OK" question with, "NOOOOOOOO!" No ambiguity there. Other kids who had their own phones at as young as 6 and 8 years old weighed in on the issue, too. Not surprisingly, they had something to say on the matter. 

Cyber Sticks and Stones: A New Book on Cyberbullying

Harrassing texts. Private details about one's personal life posted on Facebook. Mean comments and cruel lies spread via Twitter. These are just some of the forms that cyberbullying is taking in today’s digital age.

Emily Bazelon, author of a new book on cyberbullying, Sticks and Stones, discussed how the Internet and social media have intensified bullying for today’s always-connected kids on NPR's Fresh Air today.

“It really can make bullying feel like it’s 24/7,” Bazelon told Fresh Air host Terry Gross. Unlike in the pre-Internet, pre-texting past, today “when you come home, if you’re a victim of bullying, you’re likely to see this kind of continue on a social media site or via texting,” she said. Indeed, a generation ago, kids were able to get a break from bullying when they left school for the day. Today they can experience it alone in their bedrooms at night.

"It's really hard for kids not to look when they think there's some mean thing being spread around about them," Bazelon said. Another difference for bullying victims today? Since the offending words are written down online, the harrassment can feel more visible, and permanent. "The bullying can take place in front of quite a large audience," she says.

Bazelon, a senior editor at Slate and also the Truman Capote fellow at Yale Law School, discussed her new book at length with Gross. (You can hear the full interview here). A main topic was how parents can navigate — and help their children navigate — the ever-changing world of digital media kids are growing up in today.

"Technology use is such a struggle for parents right now," she said. "It's so different than when we were growing up" — without social media, for example. "These sites are encouraging kids to share widely and habitually. That's good for their business models. The more brand loyalty they can build among kids and teenagers, and the more they can habituate all of us to just sharing, the more money they make. So we need to make sure to help kids think about whether they really want to be putting intimate details, intimate photographs about their lives online."

Bazelon also told the story of spending a day at Facebook — which has 20 million American teen users — to learn about a program Facebook is currently working on to help young people deal with bullying on its site.

"Facebook has a lot of influence over kids who are mean," she said. "They know from their own data that when they tell kids that they've posted something inappropriate [and] they ask them to take it down, those kids don't re-offend." The problem, though, Bazelon said, is that Facebook has been reluctant thus far to use its influence for too much good because "it doesn't want to be seen as uncool."

You can read an excerpt from Sticks and Stones on NPR’s website here. For more information on cyberbullying, visit the Cyberbullying Research Center.

"I Hereby Agree to...": Parent-Kid Tech Pacts

From Paul Baier's PracticalSustainability blog

Are parent-kid technology contracts in vogue these days? At least a couple have become media sensations in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a dad posted on his blog a contract he signed with his 14-year-old daughter to pay her $200 if she stayed off Facebook for the rest of the school year. The post, by Paul Baier of the Boston area, went viral in a matter of hours.

And everyone had something to say about it. Some folks commenting on Baier's blog — presumably total strangers — called him a wonderful, creative and caring dad. They called his contract "brilliant," "ingenious," and "awesome." Supporters recounted their own parents paying them to do chores or get good grades. But others tore Baier apart, accusing him of bad parenting, bribery and even of forcing his daughter into the agreement — despite his stating in his original blog post, "Her idea which I support fully."

In the days following his posting, Baier told the Boston Herald, and various other news outlets, that it was indeed his daughter, an honor student, who approached him with this idea. He said she found Facebook "distracting and boring and full of nothingness!" She also wanted to earn some cash. (His daughter is not alone in her Facebook hiatus, by the way: A Pew Research Center report released in early February found that 61% of Facebook users have at some point taken a break from the site for several weeks or more.)

Janell Burley Hofmann, a Cape Cod mom, drew the same kind of attention — and fire — when she publicly shared an 18-point list of rules her 13-year-old son had to abide by when she gave him an iPhone for Christmas. "Failure to comply with the following list will result in termination of your iPhone ownership," Hofmann wrote on the Huffington Post, where she shared the details of the contract. Her rules included: "2. I will always know the password." "5. It does not go to school with you. Have a conversation with the people you text in person. It's a life skill." And "8. Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person." As of this posting, there were 1,669 comments to Hofmann's original post — many applauding her rules but others dissing them rather harshly.

Regardless of what their friends (or even strangers) may think about it, many parents make technology pacts with their children. Others who would like to but who need some help getting started can find quite a few ready-made contracts available online.

"Online safety cards" from A Platform for Good

Take, for example, these downloadable contracts about gadget usage from A Platform for Good (PFG), a project of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). Parents can use them when giving their child a new smartphone, tablet, computer, cell phone or gaming system. Both parent and child sign the contract. The child agrees to certain limits and restrictions. In return, the parent promises to learn more about the technology and to "not overreact" if something goes awry.

Common Sense Media has contracts too, called "Family Media Agreements," for kids as young as Kindergarten level. (They're broken down by grade level: elementary school, middle school and high school). The kids agree to be responsible and careful, and the parents agree to be understanding and open-minded about the technology their kids use.

Even the U.S Attorney General's office has its own "Internet Safety Contract" for children in Kindergarten through 5th grade. The "Family Online Safety Contract" from FOSI is another contract specifically about Internet safety.

The "Technology Contract" for kids at Yoursphere for Parents is worth looking into, too. "I’ve experienced firsthand that not only do technology contracts provide you the opportunity to candidly talk to your child about what’s safe use and what’s not, they’re also a great way to create boundaries for our children," says Mary Kay Hoal, Internet safety expert and founder of Yoursphere.com. Hoal certainly knows about kids and technology use. In her home, she writes, there are "three laptops, one desktop, one iPad, two iPod Touches, two Wii’s, one Xbox 360, four smartphones, one non-smart cell phone, one Netflix account, one landline and two TVs." Oh, and five kids — all bound by contract to follow the rules.