Kids on Instagram
eMarketer.com reports “5.7 million children under the age of 11 to have an account on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat”. As a parent, your instinct is to spy on Instagram of your kids. Who knows, what they are posting behind your back?
One significant difference between your childhood and theirs is the prevalence of screens. They are everywhere. So, a total ban on screens and any severe punishment is just not practical. Despite the emerging dangers, there is no logic in panic.
One has to be systematic about it and try to understand it from their point of view. Peer pressure is a huge deal at this age. Getting popular and making more friends can end them do all the crazy trends that teenagers follow.
What makes Instagram more glaring is that it’s an image and video-based site. So, everything is on display, and the text is not that important. For kids, who are not self-confident, this can be a big problem and create self-worth issues.
Thus, it makes sense to monitor your children secretly as an adult, and questionable content is easily seen this way. It is giving anxious parents sleepless nights. Parents get more worried with every passing day about how their kids are affected by Instagram.
Instagram is a social media giant. It keeps adding new ways for people to spend more time on its platform. It is useless to blame them, as this is their entire job. But the fact remains that kids are quite vulnerable to being targeted.
Before going further, it is critical to point out useful information about the dangers haunting Instagram. The point becomes highly crucial in light of the following point. Parents are turning to using cell phone monitoring software to keep a close eye on their social media activities.
1. Pornography
Even though social media sites traditionally may be the last place to look for pornography. The reality is a tad complicated. Any advertisement on the website or account they may come across can expose them to content that is pornographic in nature.
It may not be exactly pornography, but any adult content could be problematic for a child’s overall development. Kids are not equipped at this age to understand the proper context of these images and videos.
2. Online predators
Many parents feel that keeping a close eye is enough. After all, you see all of their contacts and people who follow them. You should still spy on the Instagram of your kids as these predators are getting smarter with each passing day.
Kids can pose as fellow teenagers or innocent followers. They have the smarts to manipulate young kids into a relationship. Like in some cases, adults posing like teenagers manage to get sensitive and private information.
3. Low self-esteem
The biggest criticism of sites, especially Instagram, is the emphasis on posing this perfect image of life. But as we know, these are carefully created images, and obviously, life is a series of ups and downs. It is all made up, for the most part.
Hence, it becomes vital to spy on Instagram photos and messages daily. In shocking reports, kids and especially girls, are causing self-harm for that perfect image. You can control the damage before it gets to such a horrifying point.
4. Online Bullying
Bullies are no more restricted to schools, colleges, and universities. The online world has given them new playgrounds to play on. Sites like Instagram give them full reign, and anonymity means almost no consequences.
A cursory look at their account may not know let you see this. Kids are developing their confidence, and any trolling might cause big harm to this. If not treated in time, it can possibly lead to long-term consequences.
Spy apps are a helpful tool for anxious parents. It could be an excellent way to spy on someone’s Instagram account with their permission. Like your kid, who you could take into confidence for their safety and security.
There are several ways spy apps can help parents. Here is a brief explanation:-
1. It tracks all the activities on social media websites live daily.
2. It tracks all the photos and videos exchanged on the device live daily.
3. These apps also track the GPS location of the device throughout the day.
4. It will collect browser history and deliver it to your dashboard daily.
5. The spy software will collect all the data from the installed apps on the target device.
6. It will collect daily data from chat sites like Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, etc.
7. It will also collect SMS and call logs daily with their phone book too.
As you can see, spy apps allow spying on Instagram of your kids to keep a close eye. In the wake of the dangers mentioned above, it becomes inevitable.
Sites like Instagram are highly addictive. Kids are manipulated to keep scrolling down through attractive images and videos. It can have several negative consequences, like wasting precious time and depreciating self-worth.
Let’s go through some helpful tips to control how much time your kids spend on Instagram. It is critical to know before you monitor your children secretly to track all activities:-
1. To begin with, you can suggest they mute the notifications on Instagram. This will limit your notifications for some time.
2. In the settings menu is a section called Your Activity. At the top section, you will see the average time spends on the app on the device for a day. To control their timings, you can set an alert only to spend a fixed time. Whenever they cross that limit, they will get an alert.
You could track someone’s Instagram account to get confirmation if your kids followed these directives. This will ensure they spend less time on Instagram. It becomes imperative for them not to get addicted to staring at a screen.
Conclusion
Kids and teenagers are spending an increasing amount of time on Instagram. In the U.S alone, around 72% of teenagers in the age group of 13 to 17 are on Instagram. This is a gigantic number and means increased exposure to the above-said dangers because of the platform’s nature.
Things like direct messages and stories further the danger. Stories disappear after 24 hours and need close monitoring. Monitoring software to spy on Instagram photos and messages of your kids can help you monitor their daily activities.
