Teens And Instagram

Teens love Instagram, it’s a fact. Even adults love it. Instagram allows anyone with an amateur interest in photography to be a self-made professional. And thanks to filters, you can make an ordinary photo look stunning.

According to Tech Boomers:

“So, what exactly is Instagram?

Instagram is an easy-to-use mobile application that lets you capture and edit photos or videos on your tablet computer or smart phone.  You can then share your creations on Instagram or other various social media websites, such as Facebook (which is currently Instagram's parent company), Twitter, and Foursquare.

Why use Instagram?

Instagram was initially designed to support social networks, but as its popularity skyrocketed, it became a social network all its own.  Instagram users can follow what other users post, or leave a "like" or comment on a photo or video that they find interesting.  Or, if they feel like being more private, Instagram users can require approval before other people are allowed to see their posts, or send posts privately to specific other users with the ‘Instagram Direct’ feature.”

So Instagram is still, at its core, a social media website. And in some ways, it’s more dangerous for online predators than Facebook and Twitter because it’s photo-based. Yes, you can post photos to Facebook and Twitter. But Instagram has its roots in photography, and if you’re a parent of a tween or a teenager, Instagram might make you slightly paranoid. Why? The selfie generation loves to post photos of themselves. And some of those photos may end up doing more harm to the teen than good.

Teens, by nature, don’t want to share everything with their parents. In fact, it can be argued that they don’t want share anything with their parents. That sense of independence is intoxicating for most teenagers. And having a secret online world goes way beyond what teens a generation ago had. When teens from past generations wanted to keep secrets, they might write in a diary. Speak on a LAN line in their closet in a low voice. Write a wish on a piece of paper and bury it. You get the idea.

There wasn’t the “instant” of today – instant access, instant gratification, instant consequence.

A cell phone monitoring software like Highster Mobile can help control a teen’s need for this instant gratification while using Instagram. Say, for example, your teenage daughter is taking selfies of herself on the beach in her new bikini. Sounds innocent, but then she sends the picture to Facebook. Her picture gets shared, comments (good and bad), and not even ten minutes later, her Facebook and Instagram accounts are blowing up with random comments from random people, possibly making her feel bad. As a parent, it’s hard to watch your go through any kind of public ridicule.

It may sound dramatic, but ridicule can lead to bullying which can lead to suicide.

Spy cell phone tracking is a modern way to parent and intervene before a tween or teenager goes down the wrong path of destruction. By monitoring a teen’s cell phone, the parent has access to his or her Instagram accounts and other social media sites, her text messages, her photos, her videos, her call logs, her emails, and even her GPS location.