Social media, mobile devices and peer pressure of school kids

[Dreamy Fish]

Hi there

 

I consider that I live in a "good area", yes it has it's less desirable parts but as far as I was aware, the schools were really well thought of. My son is in one of the preferred primary schools and I am really happy with it. And I thought that the upper school that he will move into (if we don't go to Australia) was supposed to be a really good one.

 

So today I was so shocked and upset when a friend from a toddler group I go to with my daughters showed me a print out of her sons Instagram account that this upper school had given to her. He is 12 years old and between him and what looked like 3 other children of the same age there was the most appalling language, "F" this and "C" that. There was seriously sexually explicit chat going on and also some proper racist stuff, it was really truly nasty and a complete eye opener.

 

It would seem the school isn't doing anything about it, I would imagine because they consider it (rightly) the parents responsibility but there was talk of suspension and there are behavioural issues too. This child comes from a broken home and whilst my friend (his mother) does not allow her son to carry ipods/phones or access social media in her home, he is however allowed to in his paternal grandmothers and there is a power struggle between these two adults with the obvious resulting consequences.

 

Because we want to move to Australia (myriad of reasons but I don't want to get into debates of having rose tints on etc) I just wondered if any parents could share their experience of this type of peer pressure. Is it common and how do schools and parents deal with it.

 

My son is 8, I know it sounds weird but we don't watch live television so he isn't exposed to all the ads aimed at kids. He doesn't have a mobile device and I will not allow him access to social media until the appropriate age which as far as I am concerned is in excess of 16. I also don't like buying into the latest faddy crap like Moshis and Minecraft because I think it is expensive, transient and I feel like it creates a nasty competitiveness between those who have it all and those who don't.

 

I want my child not to care!

 

DF x