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My DD had snapchat, kik, whisper, and Instagram. She now only has Instagram so that she can chat with her birth mom, but I monitor it closely. I removed the other apps from her phone and also put restrictions on it. I took away her ability to download apps completely because there are so many bad apps out there. Yes, it was as bad as you can imagine.
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My 4th grader wants Kik on her deactivated iPhone 4s and I said no. If she wants to text her friend she can use mine or DH's phone. She hasn't asked to text more than one or two friends and the last time was a few months ago.
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DS1 (12) has Instagram only but pretty much never uses it. He really doesn't use his phone at all, except to listen to music with Spotify. He has my super old Samsung Victory phone that has barely any space for new apps. He doesn't text on it either. He talks to his friends using Google Hangout.
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Say no as long as you can...seriously. I do not like snapchat at all. My oldest is only 12 and hasn't asked for it yet (luckily). He had twitter for a school project (long story) and I had him delete it immediately after. We had 2 18-year-old boys living with us last school year for an exchange program. Trust me, snapchat is used for all the things you don't want kids to use it for. There's this false idea that the snaps are completely gone after you've viewed them, but anyone you send it to can screenshot it (and they do) and then post that pic wherever they want. Nothing disappears from the internet and until a kid can understand that, he/she is not old enough to use the app. Just google "snapchat nudes" and you'll see what I mean. Terrifying. I closely monitor my children's use of the internet (although I am by no means a helicopter mom - the internet just really frightens me).
eta: snapchat is extremely addictive. The teenagers that lived with us were constantly on it (and twitter). It was disturbing how much time they spent looking at their phones and really opened my eyes to social media use among teenagers.