Privacy Recommendations for a Young Teen (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 week ago by pineapplelover@lemm.ee to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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So I have a young teen entering 7th grade and so they're about to receive their first phone. With that, it opens a lot of doors to all the big tech social media apps and privacy invasive services.

I'm not sure how to approach this. My parents probably want tracking features so it'll probably be Find My or a 3rd party app like life360 depending on if we choose iphone or degoogled pixel.

Social media I'm not sure if fediverse stuff is the right path especially for lemmy, since it's just tech nerd stuff and politics which isn't interesting really unless they go out of their way to find smaller communities. Their friends will probably force them onto Instagram or some shit and I don't really want them doomscolling on reels, that shit algorithm, and the malicious messaging app built in to it.

It's just kinda hard trying to blend being a functional member of society and maintain your mental well being and privacy.

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[-] featured@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago

Just make sure they know anything they put on these big tech platforms are there forever, regardless of what claims they make about “disappearing messages” etc. Do your best to guide them towards encrypted services for their own protection. As much as I hate this, iPhones are a decent recommendation in the US since almost every young person uses iMessage as the default, and that has end to end encryption available. Work to inform them on the dangers of corporate spying and profiling, as well as data leaks and security, and let them have some sovereignty over their platforms. Keeping an eye on them is good; isolating them from important modern social circles isn’t. Inform and educate first and foremost

this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025

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