Find all the information you need to know about parental guidelines and reporting resources for all the apps your child may be using in one place.
This will help your child use the internet responsibly and provide parents, guardians, caregivers and teachers with the information they need to ensure internet safety.
This guide colates common terms used, useful safety features and information on how to report content for the following apps; Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, VSCO and BeReal. For more information on internet safety visit webwise.ie.
Tacklebullying.ie A Parents and Carers Guide to Instagram
Family Center https://familycenter.instagram.com/
Instagram is a free photo and video sharing social network. It is owned by Meta and has been operating since 2010. It is available on both Android and iPhone Smartphones and can be accessed on a desktop. Instagram is especially popular among teenagers but is also used by brands to advertise their products through celebrity endorsement.
DMs = Direct Messages. Young people can message each other individually or in groups. They can also share photos and videos with just the people they’re messaging.
Stories disappear from the app after 24 hours, unless your teen has enabled archiving, which makes their expired stories available only to them. Your teen can subsequently share these in their Stories Highlights, which don’t disappear. Anyone who can view your teen’s stories can screenshot them.
Reels allows people to record and edit short videos of up to 30 seconds in the Instagram Camera. You can add effects and music to your reel, or use your own original audio.
Your teen can go live to share with their followers in real time. When live, they can invite friends to join them, co-host a live session, or leave comments and send hearts. They can also video chat in their DMs with up to four people.
IGTV is a place to share video content up to one hour in length. Your teen can find videos from creators, and make their own longer content.
Private Account: Having a private account will let your teen control who sees or responds to their content. If you have a private account, people have to follow you to see your posts, Stories, and Reels, and all follow requests need to be accepted by you first. People you haven’t accepted also can’t comment on your content in those places, and they won’t see your content at all in places like Explore or hashtags.
Profile > Settings > Privacy – Private Account
Message Controls: Everyone on Instagram can limit who can send them Direct Messages and who can add them to group chats. That means your teen can choose to only receive messages from people who follow them.
Profile > Settings > Privacy > Messages
Blocking Accounts: You can block accounts you want to interact with. This will block people from seeing and commenting on your posts, Stories, Reels, and Live broadcasts. The account that you block will not be notified that you have blocked them.
Profile of account you want to block > “…” in top right corner > block
Comment Controls: You can be in control of who can comment on your photos and videos. In the “Comment” section of Instagram’s privacy settings, you can choose to allow comments from everyone, people you follow and those people’s followers, just the people you follow, or just your followers. They can also remove comments entirely from your posts.
Profile > Settings > Privacy > Comments
Anyone can report content on Instagram—from accounts, to posts, comments, DMs, Lives, Stories, IGTV, and Reels
Reporting a post
Reporting an account
Reporting comments
Reporting a DM
Reporting a story
Reporting a live stream
Reporting a reel
This new update helps parents know who their teen follows (and who follows them), to see time spent and set limits, and to allow teens to let parents know when reports are made.
Parents and guardians will have access to insights about how their teens use our apps, such as how much time they spend on different apps or new friends they make. They will also be able to set up supervision tools for each app, all from one central place.
The Family Centre includes an education hub, safety centre, transparency centre and a help centre for parents to understand the safety features on Instagram better.
Report a problem: https://support.tiktok.com/en/safety-hc/report-a-problem
Guide for parents video by ABC: https://familycenter.instagram.com/
Safety Centre: https://www.tiktok.com/safety/en/
What is TikTok?: https://www.webwise.ie/parents/explained-tiktok/
TikTok: Pros, Cons, and the Promise of Youth Empowerment: https://tacklebullying.ie/tiktok-pros-cons-and-the-promise-of-youth empowerment/
Tiktok is a free video streaming and sharing platform that allows users to make short creative videos. It is available for Android and iPhone users. Tiktok was released in 2016 and has been massively popular since then. Users are able to like, comment and share other user’s videos on the app, and receive notifications.
FYP = ‘For You Page’ – the homepage of TikTok where you can watch videos.
Duets enable people to create a video side by side on the same screen with any other user on TikTok.
Reactions allow users to record their reactions to other videos and post them.
A TikTok trend is when one video or sound becomes extremely popular among users.
Stitch is a creation tool that allows you to combine another video on TikTok with one you’re creating. If you allow another person to Stitch with your video, they can use a part of your video as a part of their own video.
Private Account: By default, accounts for individuals under 16 are set to private which means you can approve or deny follower requests, and only people you’ve approved as followers can see your content.
Accounts for individuals who are over 16 start out as public, which means anyone on TikTok can view your videos and post comments, or start a Duet to engage with the content you’ve created and shared.
Profile > icon in top right corner > privacy
Direct Messages: Direct Messages can be sent and received from ”Everyone’, Friends’ (creators that you follow, who also follow you back), or ‘No one’. Only registered accounts who are 16 and older are eligible for Direct Messages.
Profile > Privacy & Safety
Family Pairing: Lets parents link their TikTok account to their teen’s to enable a variety of content and privacy settings.
Find more information on Family Pairing.
Comment Controls: If you’re under age 16, in settings, you’ll see this set as ‘Friends’. This means only those who follow you and who you follow back can comment on your videos. You can change this to ‘No one’ to stop others from commenting on your videos based on your preference.
If you are 16 or 17 years old, in settings you’ll see this function set to ‘Everyone’. You can change this if you prefer to limit who is able to comment on your videos.
You also have the ability to delete any inappropriate comments posted on your videos. Just tap and hold the comment, then choose “delete”.
Block/delete a follower: You can block another user from viewing your content or sending you a message.
Profile > Followers > “…” on the follower you want to block > remove this follower
Who can view your videos: You can choose who can view your video on the post page each time you publish a video. You can choose to make it only visible to yourself, to your ‘Friends,’ or to wider TikTok community.
Create your video > on post screen press ‘who can watch this video’ > choose privacy setting
(On an existing video) “…” icon on video > privacy settings > who can watch this video > choose privacy setting
Reporting an underage account
Reporting a video
Reporting a comment
Reporting a message
Reporting another user
Reporting a live video
Snapchat was released in 2011 and is a free mobile messaging application used to share photos, videos, text and drawings. Messages (Snaps) are deleted by default after being viewed.
The feature allows your connected users on Snapchat to see your real time location. The map is precise and shows the exact location within a few metres.
Users can choose to share your location with:
Allows users to send messages, voice notes, images, make phone calls and voice calls. Chats are deleted after viewing unless users change settings.
A snap is a picture taken using the Snapchat camera, which can be sent to other users with text, filters and drawings applied.
Snapchat stories are a series of snaps that last for 24 hours and are available for everyone to view or just your friends. You can add Snaps to your own Story, Stories with groups of friends or on the Snap Map. People can also share your story with other users, as long as your settings allow this.
A collection of the most popular snaps from the Snapchat community. These can be customised to your preferences when you view them.
When enabled your friends can’t see your location on Snapmaps.
Add to a story with a select number of friends able to see the content.
The number of consecutive days you snap another user.
Customise location on Snapmaps: You can choose to share your location with all your friends you’ve added back, just a group of select friends, or you can turn on ghost mode which means no one can see your location. Snaps you submit to Our Story can still show up on the snapmap in ghost mode.
Only add/accept close friends: Only people you accept as friends can see your snapchat content, unless you have your settings as public
Choose who can view your stories: The default privacy setting is that only Snapchatters you’ve added can view your Story. The privacy settings you have when you post a Snap to your Story will remain for that Snap, even if you change the settings later.
Know the difference between blocking and removing a friend: When you remove someone from your Friends list, they won’t be able to view any of your private Stories, but they’ll still be able to view any content you have set to public. Depending on your privacy settings, they may also still be able to Chat or Snap you. When you block a friend, they won’t be able to view your Story, send you Snaps or send you Chats.
Anyone can report content on Instagram—from accounts, to posts, comments, DMs, Lives, Stories, IGTV, and Reels
Reporting a snap
Reporting an account
Reporting a story
Facebook is a free online social network service that was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerburg and became the largest social networking site in the world. Facebook is also connected to the messaging app ‘Messenger’ which allows Facebook users to message and call other users.
Timeline = a space on each user’s profile page where users can post their content and friends can post messages.
Status enables users to alert friends to their current location or situation.
News feed informs users of changes to their friends’ profiles and status
Control who can see what you post: When you post on Facebook, you can choose what audience can see your content. You can also change the audience settings on existing posts.
Press “Whats on your mind” > below your name click audience selector > choose your audience (Friends / Only me / Public)
Control who can find and friend you: Everyone, except people you’ve blocked, can search for you and click on your profile, but what they can see about you in search results depends on what’s shared with them.
Control what you are tagged in on Facebook: The default setting is ‘Friends’ for who can see what you’re tagged in. Anyone can tag you in a post and it will appear on your timeline
Settings > Privacy > Profile and tagging
You can also choose to review tags before they go on your timeline
Settings and privacy > activity log > timeline, photo and tag review > review posts your tagged in
Remove content from your profile: Remove content you’ve shared or posted on Facebook from view on your profile
Settings and privacy > activity log > “…” on top right of post you want to remove > remove from profile/delete/archive/trash
Reporting profiles
Reporting posts
Reporting Photo / Video
Reporting a Message
Reporting a page
VSCO is a photography app which allows people to take images or upload images and edit them on the app. VSCO was originally released in 2011 but it has only grown in popularity among young people in recent years.
You can purchase membership on VSCO or use a free account. VSCO is available for android and iOS devices.
Unlike most social media apps, VSCO does not have liking or commenting features
Even though VSCO does not have a ‘like’ function, you can favourite someone’s image.
Republishing an image on VSCO is like reposting an image. It allows you to save the posts you republish to your collection which is found on your profile.
A collection is the posts that you republish which are saved on your profile. These are public.
Private Account: There is currently no option to make your account private on VSCO. This means that everyone can see the content you post on your account.
Location: The default setting on VSCO shares the location of where the image is taken or shared from. Users have to change this setting manually if they don’t want their location shared.
Deleting a post: You can delete a post from VSCO, however this does not remove it completely from any search engine results
Profile > post you want to delete > “…” on top right > delete
Unfollowing a profile: Unfollowing someone on VSCO will prevent them from being able to message you.
Block a profile: Allows you to restrict who can message you or favourite your images. When you block someone, they will still be able to see your profile and posts. You will not be able to interact with the profile you have blocked either.
Go to profile you want to block > “…” on top right > block
Anyone can report content on Instagram—from accounts, to posts, comments, DMs, Lives, Stories, IGTV, and Reels
Reporting an image
There is currently no option available to report an account on VSCO,
