13+ per terms
Photo and video social network where secret 'finsta' accounts, DMs, and image sharing create privacy and sextortion risks for teens.
Scammers may pose as peers, request an intimate image, and then demand money or threaten to share it. Tell your teen that they can come to you without punishment, and that paying rarely ends the threats.
Relevant to:DiscordInstagramSnapchatSextortion
Videos may encourage children to choke themselves or hold their breath until they pass out. These behaviours can cause brain injury or death, and there is no safe way to try them. Ask whether your child has seen related content.
Relevant to:TikTokYouTubeInstagramDangerous Challenge
Some tools can fabricate realistic explicit images from an ordinary photo. Talk about consent, about reporting, and about what to do if your child — or a classmate — is targeted.
Relevant to:InstagramSnapchatDiscordInappropriate Content
An overview of the recurring class of dares that algorithmic feeds surface to children, with dedicated advisories on choking and pass-out dares, unsafe diphenhydramine use, and the heated squishy-toy trend.
Relevant to:TikTokYouTubeInstagramDangerous Challenge
Always-available AI companions and in-app assistants can foster real emotional dependency in teens, blur what is real, and have given harmful advice in documented cases.
Relevant to:SnapchatInstagramDiscordMental Health
Bullying now runs through group chats — pile-ons, forwarded screenshots of private messages, and pointed exclusion that follow a child home on the phone in their pocket.
Relevant to:WhatsAppSnapchatInstagramDiscordCyberbullying
Heavy social media use is associated with worse mental health in adolescents — most strongly in girls — during a developmental window when sleep and self-image are already under pressure.
Relevant to:InstagramTikTokSnapchatMental Health
Feeds are engineered to maximize time on screen using the same variable-reward mechanics as slot machines, against a self-control system that is not finished developing.
Relevant to:TikTokYouTubeInstagramSnapchatCompulsive Design
Early, heavy screen exposure is linked to effects on sleep and attention, and to the displacement of the unstructured play and in-person time young children need.
Relevant to:YouTubeTikTokInstagramDevelopmental Harm
Teens often keep a second, 'real' account where they post more freely — and to a wider audience than they think, including their location, school, and daily routine.
Relevant to:InstagramData Privacy