Instagram expressly states in the first point of its "Terms of Use" that: "You must be over 14 years of age to use the service ." However, there are an increasing number of children not just 14 but also 11 or 10 years old, with profiles on the platform . Access to mobile devices at increasingly younger ages (whether their own or a family member's) and changes in technology usage patterns have made social media and mobile apps more common among children.
Parents who oppose their child opening an Instagram phone number list account and do not authorize it, because they consider it inappropriate and even dangerous.
Parents who assume their children are digital natives and that it makes no sense to deny them new technologies, because they are part of their normal environment, and they don't object to Instagram.
Parents who don't know Instagram , but understand their child's use of it and don't object.
Parents who tolerate , with objections, their child opening a profile, even if they do not participate in the social network.
Do you identify with any of them?
Before continuing, let me tell you that digital natives aren't born: they're made . I don't believe in the concept of "digital native." In fact, I could almost say I distrust it. Why? Because being born surrounded by digital devices, growing up imbued with new technologies, doesn't mean you know how to use them... well.
Because it's not enough to know what you can do with an electronic device and how to use it. Because what's important, what's essential, isn't the what or the how, but the WHY and the WHAT FOR . And you don't come from birth knowing that. You have to learn it.
And then?
Some advocate installing parental control systems or programs on electronic devices. But they don't work . I know: they're very effective at blocking children's access to digital content that's unsuitable for their age, or undesirable. But they don't work. First, because it's impossible to install parental controls on all the devices within the child's reach, who probably uses the smartphone of a parent or older sibling the most to begin with.
Second, because if you don't want them to access inappropriate content, the only really valid thing is for an adult to be with them, next to them, or behind them , when they use the Internet and mobile applications, playing and accompanying them.