Platform-by-platform privacy settings and parental controls
Minimum age: 13
Short-form video platform built around a highly personalised recommendation algorithm.
Minimum age: 13
Messaging app built around disappearing photos and videos, an embedded AI chatbot (My AI), and live location sharing (Snap Map).
Minimum age: 13
Photo and video sharing platform with direct messaging and an algorithm-driven Explore feed.
Minimum age: 13
Video platform with algorithm-driven recommendations, comments, and live chat.
Gaming platforms and chat features expose children to contact from unknown adults. Grooming behaviours typically begin on gaming platforms before moving to private messaging on a social app.
Recommendation algorithms are optimised for engagement, not wellbeing. Amnesty International found harmful mental health content can reach a new teen account within 20 minutes of it being created.
Platforms increasingly share sign-in systems, ad infrastructure, and in some cases account data with other apps and sites owned by the same company — making a family rule of "this app only" harder to enforce in practice.
Guardian AI
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For immediate help: • 999 — if someone is in immediate danger • Childline: 0800 1111 — free, confidential support • CEOP — ceop.police.uk for online exploitation
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