I replied to the other poster about this, but I absolutely do not think kids inherently understand the risks inherent in social media. As one stupid example, earlier this school year we had to talk with the parents of another XC team member who posted a team photo to the team instagram with thumbs downs covering the faces of our son and another athlete. If that sort of thing was private, fine. I don't particularly care about the vapid beefs between teens (although we did get the details and, knowing the other kid, I side firmly with my son), but the other athlete posted it publicly, with no context, and on an account that looks like it's run by the school.

That's just a silly example that doesn't even get into the posting of risky behaviors, using inappropriate language, bullying or whatever else. I do not believe kids grok all this innately and it's important for parents (and teachers and coaches and other adult influences in their lives) to educate them.

We also spot check our kids' phones periodically. Not because we don't trust them, but because it's important to know sometimes whether there are issues afoot that we aren't privy to and could help with. (Disappearing messages is another parental challenge with Snap.). This might sound overbearing and intrusive, but I don't believe it is. Our 16yo has mostly graduated from us feeling a need to check his comms, but we still monitor our 14yo a couple times a week because she's less forthcoming about goings on in her friend group.

Fwiw, it's not like we don't trust our kids to make good decisions themselves. We have added both as authorized users to one of our credit cards, which they have access to via Google Wallet. In all things like this, clear communications and expectation setting between parents & children is the most important, no matter what you decide -- or whether your decisions change over time (or are dependent on the child's own behavior/decisions).

I have a 16yr old (girl), and our decision was essentially to "go with the flow" - give her a phone at same age as bulk of her peers were getting one, and not to put blocks on anything. So far so good. The rationale is that the current social media environment is the world they are growing up with, so better get used to it. Kids are generally quite tech savvy and share information with each other, and understand the need for online privacy - when to share only with friends, etc.

It'd be very limiting not to allow your child to have access to things like Snapchat when all their peers have it and are using it to communicate on a daily basis.