Social media Hub
Advice about key social media platforms and apps
Social media Guides
From keeping in touch with friends and family to watching
Instagram is a photo and video sharing app that is popular with teens. People on Instagram can connect with one another through comments, captions, reels, stories and hashtags on photos and videos.
Young people use Instagram as a way to engage with their friends, share pictures and videos of their lives or things they like doing, and as a way to share their creativity in stories.
Age requirement
To be eligible to sign up for Instagram, you must be at least 13 years old.
Anyone 13 and older can create an Instagram account by registering an email address and selecting a username.Â
Safety tools and advice
Instagram’s Safety Centre has advice about what’s okay and not okay on the site, as well as advice about the safety features available.
This includes the Safety Tools section which provides more information about the safety and security essentials.
Terms and conditions
Our resources and advice
Impersonation and Scamming Alerts Introduced on Instagram
Instagram has rolled out a new feature aimed at enhancing user awareness regarding potential suspicious activities and impersonation attempts.
New Instagram Privacy and Safety Checklist
The Instagram Privacy and Safety Checklist offers easy and straightforward guidance to help protect your profile.
Facebook is a social network that is popular globally with over a billion users. It has a range of safety features and advice, including advice about how to deal with concerns and how to protect your privacy.
Young people use Facebook to connect with friends or family, to see and share updates and posts, and to follow brands, celebrities and influencers they like.
Age requirement
To be eligible to sign up for Facebook, you must be at least 13 years old.
Safety advice and tools
Terms and conditions
Facebook’s Community Standards explain what type of expression is acceptable, and what type of content may be reported and removed. For example, Facebook does not accept content that is threatening, bullying or pornographic. It is also against the rules to create a fake profile, use a fake name or share copyrighted content.
Our resources and advice
Updated Facebook Privacy and Safety Checklist for 2024
The Facebook Checklist is an updated and comprehensive guide designed to address common privcacy and safety inquiries for users.
SWGfL welcome new industry partners TikTok and Bumble to StopNCII.org
SWGfL were pleased to announce that TikTok and Bumble Inc. have joined as Industry Partners of StopNCII.org. Find out more…
TikTok
TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to express themselves through dancing, lip-synching, comedy sketches, makeup tutorials, and by telling stories about their lives in short videos that can be shared with others in the TikTok community. Videos are between 15 seconds and three minutes long. There are also a range of TikTok Influencers who create videos which get viewed millions of times.
Age requirements
13 years +
To sign up for TikTok, you must verify that your age is over 13.
Safety advice
TikTok’s safety centre has advice and guides on the content that is and isn’t allowed on the app. They also provide information on the tools and controls that users can utilise to manage their experience within the app.
Guardians Guide
Information for parents and carers about Family Pairing and other available settings
Terms and conditions
Our resources and advice
New TikTok checklist highlights privacy and security settings
The 2023 TikTok Checklist is a comprehensive resource designed to address some of the most pressing queries about privacy and…
New Digital Wellbeing Features Announced for TikTok
TikTok has announced new updates aimed at improving digital wellbeing, screentime management and parental controls.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a messaging app that is popular with teenagers which allows them to share user-generated photos, texts and videos which only last on screen for a matter of seconds, these are called ‘snaps’.
Once a snap is sent to someone else, it can last on the screen of the receiver for between 1 and 30 seconds before disappearing. Users can also add images or videos to their story for their followers to see for 24 hours.
Age requirements
13 years +
To be eligible to sign up for Snapchat, you must be at least 13 years old.
Safety advice
Snapchat’s safety centre has advice and guides on the content that is and isn’t allowed on the app. They also provide information on the tools and controls that users can utilise to manage their experience within the app.
Terms and conditions
Our resources and advice
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website that is owned by Google. There are a range of safety features such as reporting tools and restricting access to inappropriate content in Safety Mode.
Age requirements
13 years +
In order to create a YouTube account, you must be at least 13 years old.
It is possible to watch videos without registering an account, but you would not be able to post your own videos.
Safety advice
TikTok’s safety centre has advice and guides on the content that is and isn’t allowed on the app. They also provide information on the tools and controls that users can utilise to manage their experience within the app.
Terms and conditions
Our resources and advice
YouTube announce new parental controls for YouTube Kids
Google have announced that it will add more parental controls to its YouTube Kids app.
A parent’s guide to YouTube Restricted Mode
In this blog we explore the safety feature ‘Restricted Mode’ on YouTube; looking at how it works and some things…
WhatsApp is a free mobile messaging app which allows users to send and receive messages, images and videos to their existing phone contacts, using an internet connection. WhatsApp users can create groups and send messages to lots of their friends at the same time.
WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted meaning that only the sender and recipient can see the contents of a message.
Age requirements
16 years +
To be eligible to sign up for this service, you must be at least 16 years of age.
Safety advice
Terms and conditions
Our resources and advice
WhatsApp reinvent their Status feature
​The messaging service WhatsApp has recently launched a new update that sees a move towards photo and video sharing as a main…
Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to communicate in short messages called tweets. Many people use Twitter for news, as well as to follow their friends, favourite celebrities or brands.
Age requirements
13 years +
To sign up for Twitter, you must verify that your age is over 13.
Safety advice
Twitters safety centre has advice and guides on things such as spam, fake accounts, sensitive content and abuse.
Terms and conditions
Resources and Guidance
Be in the know
You’ll get knowledge, skills and tools to make the internet safer
for young people at your care. Each sent once per month.