In a recent meeting with an eSafety expert, one Year 6 student asked the presenter how old you should be before having social media. When the presenter jokingly said ‘about thirty’, many of the Year 5 and 6 students in the room seemed incredulous.

We know of many students in lower and lower grades that have social media accounts either with or without parent consent. There are a couple of reasons why this is concerning.

The first reason is that under the US COPPA (1998) law, these organisations are legally in breach if they have collected information of children under the age of 13.

The second reason is that we have seen from personal experience that many children both under and over thirteen have demonstrated that they don’t have the maturity to handle social media in a safe, smart and responsible way. This has unfortunately led to an increase in online bullying, body and self image issues that are really hurting our kids.

The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner contains more resource on this at this website. The infographic below provides a great reference for age limits on all social media accounts.