Yes, he does, and you had no idea.
This is the latest craze among teenagers in middle school and high school. Kids have a “cover” Instagram account that is all happy go lucky for their parents to follow, and another account for their school friends and other peers.
And we do not know what they are posting. Are they taking pictures that we do not want them to take? Using language that we do not want them to use? And just doing kid things, that kids will do? Those rascally things that kids used to do where not too harmful in the olden days when I was growing up, but today they could get you labeled as a sex offender for life (not that we did things that awful in the olden days!). And when you are 14 you are not thinking about consequences. So we parents have to.
The kids refer to these accounts as their “FINSTA” account. That stands for fake Instagram.
HOW DO WE CATCH THIS DECEPTIVENESS?
My son does not own a phone. I own a second phone that he is allowed to use. I own it. I pay over $50 a month for his phone. I mean MY PHONE. We forget that these are the parents devices. So I can check it at will. Or he loses it. But if it is a secret Instagram account, it will be very hard to find.
We parents have to work together, we have to be a village, raising and protecting our children as a group. Hopefully one parent will find some information that we can all use to protect our kids from themselves! I check my son’s account regularly, and then I am able to see the accounts he follows. Almost everyone of his friends has two Instagram accounts. And some of these are quite inappropriate.
Lastly, do not ask them if they have a secret account. You may have the best relationship in the world with your child, but do not tip your hand and lose the opportunity to see if they are hiding something. Even the best of our children sometimes like to be sneaky, social media is a way for them to act out on-line where they think it is safer than in real life.
We parents have to be forever vigilant and we must work together!! And don’t get me started on the crap I have found on Snapchat, and that gets deleted right away!
Wow, never ceases to amaze me how many kids are so deceptive. But we parents have you to keep us in the loop.
It doesn’t help when they are 18 and you are paying for their service! I gave up on worrying a year ago!
I never heard of a FInsta accountant going to have to tell my daughter about this.
So it’s not okay for your kid to be deceptive, but it’s okay as the parent to be deceptive? No wonder kids hide stuff from their parents if there are boundaries like this.
I am legally responsible for my son until he turns 18. Plus, I own the phone. Lastly, I am not deceptive, he knows I check his phone daily. What’s your issue? A 13/14 year old can be very secretive, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still need massive amounts of guidance with the legal issues surrounding us.
Always always always stay on top of it. Kids think parents are stupid and the best thing you can do is stay friends with their friends parents because the more we all keep checking kids devices the more we can contact one another to share what we found to keep our kids safe. If MORE parents did this the world and it’s children would be a much safer place.
Snap Chat is EVIL! as well as a few other websites are EVIL.
Random phone checks are the best. My daughter and son know that they are not allowed to change their passwords and I am allowed to spot check at any time.
I did this a year ago and found things I didn’t like. I probably saved my daughter from being kidnapped or worse. It is our job to keep our children SAFE.
To the parent who thinks being deceptive so are kids are deceptive I get your point. if you have a open relationship where your child tells you every little thing and when you ask them about xyz and they honestly tell you and not lie then more power to you. The rest of us are trying to keep our heads above water trying to keep up with all the social media shenanigans. Even in families I think have an excellent relationship they tell me their kids lie. So kudos to you!