Safety
Nothing They Send Is Ever Really Gone
When an app says messages disappear, that only means they disappear from the app, because the person on the other end can always take a screenshot or a picture of their screen.
What disappearing really means
Snapchat, Instagram's vanish mode and WhatsApp's view once all take the message out of the app. WhatsApp and Instagram block screenshots of view once photos now, but none of them can stop somebody from filming the screen with another phone, or just showing it to whoever's sitting next to them. Kids think none of that can happen, because the app kind of makes it look that way.
Deleting works on your copy only
When your kid deletes a photo, they're deleting their own copy. Anything they already sent is on somebody else's phone, and sometimes on the app's servers too, so what I'd tell a kid is that deleting helps, but it doesn't undo it. If you tell them deleting makes it go away and then it doesn't, they stop believing you.
The one rule I'd teach
Every filter and every setting fails eventually, so what really protects them is a habit: only send what you'd be okay with the whole grade seeing. That's easier for a kid to remember than a list of app rules, and it works the same way on whatever app shows up next year.
The Sunday Script
Get one script every Sunday
The words for one hard conversation, in your inbox every Sunday, and a short note once a month. You can stop anytime.
That email doesn’t look right.