Social media has continued to grow in popularity with both teens and tweens. According a BBC survey more than three quarters of younger children between 10 and 12 years old are using at least one social media network.
If your child is eager to start tweeting, posting or sharing but you feel they’re not ready to use the likes of Facebook or Instagram, then there are a number of alternative social networks made for children that you can point them to.
These offer child-friendly features like games and contests but also give you a chance to use them as teaching tool to get them sharing safely.
Ultimately, these social networks give children a safer environment where they can share their experiences and engage with friends they know.
Click on the links below to find out more about each platform.
14+ Years
Social networks for 6 – 10 Years
Disney Club Penguin
Snow covered virtual world for kids to create, play and chat safely
Child-friendly features:
Children can create avatar penguins that they use to move around the virtual world chatting to other penguins, playing games and earning points to buy penguin clothes, pets and other accessories to furnish their igloos.
Safety features:
Parental controls allow parents to manage chat settings, screen time and much more. The chat function on the platform only allows users to use phrases approved by moderators (around 300,000 most popular).
Any words that are not recognised are placed in a queue for moderators to approve. This limits the potential of abusive language being shared. As with other social gaming platforms you can also block or report any inappropriate behaviour.
Age: 7+
Cost: Free limit use or at a cost of £4.95 for 1 month members
Available on Android and iOS
Kudos
Instagram like-app for children with safety built-in
Child-friendly features
The Photo sharing social media app gives children the opportunity to explore the world of social networking in a safe environment.
Children can edit their pictures by adding text and drawings and then share the images with an approved list of friends. Friends who receive the image are only able to like, react (limited to three positive reactions) and comment on the photos.
As the main aim of the app is to teach preteens the etiquette of interacting online, it has constant reminders to keep things positive like the comment box that directs users to ‘ leave a nice comment’. The app also picks users who have modeled good behaviour to be ambassadors to other Kudos users.
Safety features
- All accounts require a parent or carer to provide email authentication and approval. No friends can be added until a parent approves the account.
- Geo-targetting is not offered so images will not share your child’s location.
- Photos are monitored to make sure they’re not inappropriate and all the likes made on photos are anonymous.
Age: 8+
Cost: Free
Available on Android and iOS
Yoursphere
A safe place where children can interact with people of similar interests
Child-friendly features:
The app is made up of a number of dynamic social hubs or spheres to help children with shared interest like music, film or fashion to connect. They can also create their own spheres and upload photos, videos and enter competitions.
Safety features:
- Before opening a child’s account, parents are required to verify their identity with a security service (NetIDme).
- To help children report any abuses on the platform it features a CEOP Report Abuse Button that links through to ChildLine to give members access to help and advice.
- Children under the age of 13 can only friend other children within a three year age range.
- The company behind the app has also teamed up with Beatbullying charity to create a number of CyberMentors who offer members help on cyberbullying.
Age: 9+
Cost: Free
Available on Android and iOS
PlayKids Talk
Safe instant messaging app to help kids learn how to communicate online
Child-friendly features
Children can decorate photos and send emojis to friends and family. It mimics similar features to the likes of Instragram to make it feel like the real thing.
Safety features
- To set up the child’s account parents are required to go through age-verification.
- Parents can control all aspects of the child’s account such as contacts and profile.
- Parent have access to the account on their phones as well to keep an eye on what is being shared in real time
Age: 7+
Cost: Free
Available on iOS and Android
ChatFOSS
Offers the fun of social media with the safety of the school playground
ChatFOSS enables children to have the functionality of imessage, snapchat (without the deletion) Oovoo and instagram. They can instantly share messages, photos and video chat with friends.
ChatFOSS aims to mirror the offline world. It encourages meaningful communication between people you know in the offline world. The key difference is that no-one can be searched for. Therefore friends can only be made if both children choose to invite each other. To do this they must know their friend’s ChatFOSS ID and visa versa. No invitations can be seen, so only if both children have independently entered each others details will they become friends. This stops people searching and requesting people, thus luring children into accepting inappropriate friend requests. Parents receive notification of everyone their child is friends with enabling them to ensure that their child knows the person they are talking to.
Safety features
- Other friends cannot see who your child’s other friends are on the platform
- No one can remove your child from a group they have invited to join
- The platform has no advertising or in-app purchasing available
- Under 18’s require a parent to confirm the account via their email
- It uses tier 4 security
Age: 3+
Cost: Free for the first month and then an annual subscription
Available on iOS and Android
Social networks for 11-13 Years
Kidzworld
Offers moderated chatrooms and encourages children to be creative
Child-friendly features:
Children can express themselves by posting blogs, artwork or posting comments in forums. There are also games and read articles around topics that interest them.
Safety features:
- Uses staff to moderated the content that is posted throughout the site
- There are also filters that find and remove any inappropriate content
Age: 11+
Cost: Free
Available on iOS
Popjam
Creative community app for kids
Child-friendly features:
Users create content for their own pages using stickers, photos and drawing tools and can follow people or brands they are interested in; from their favourite games, ‘word of the day’ or learning a new language!
Safety features:
- Dedicated moderators monitor PopJam 24 hours a day and are active members of the community
- Messages can only be sent to someone if you are both following each other
- All post are monitored
- You can report inappropriate content and stop following easily
Age: 13+
Cost: Free
Available on iOS
Social networks for 14+ Years
Gromsocial
Social networking site created “by kids for kids”
Child-friendly features
Teens can create avatars of themselves but their real names do not appear on the site. They can also get help with homework, share images and videos.
Safety features
- Applies a filter to remove any abusive language
- Requires email verification from parent to open an account
- Parents have access to child’s account to monitor activity like what friends are added and what is shared
Age: 13+
Cost: Free
Available on iOS and Android
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