Top 10 Platforms Parents Should Know About

This quick-reference appendix supports wider awareness of platforms and online spaces that parents may hear about, use themselves, or assume are harmless. The key message is that risk often comes from private messaging, unknown contacts, livestreaming, location sharing, adult content, gaming chat, hidden accounts and movement between platforms.

Why Age Limits Do Not Always Protect Children

Most social media, messaging and gaming platforms have age limits, but many rely on the child entering their own date of birth. This means the platform may assume the user is old enough because the child has said they are. Children may change their date of birth, create a new account, use a different email address, use a parent’s account, access the platform through a browser, or use a friend’s device. Some platforms are designed for older teenagers or adults, so the safety tools may not be strong enough for younger children, especially where private messaging, livestreaming, adult content, location sharing or payment features are available.

Parents may also feel reassured because they use the same platform themselves and have not experienced harm. However, children often use platforms differently from adults. They may accept friend requests to increase followers, join group chats, use pseudonyms, follow trends, enter private gaming servers, respond to dares, use disappearing messages or move conversations between apps. A platform can feel familiar to adults but still create different risks for children because of age, confidence, peer pressure, loneliness, curiosity, neurodiversity, SEND, trauma, isolation or limited understanding of grooming.

Examples of How Children Get Around Age Limits and Safety Settings

• Entering an older date of birth when creating an account.
• Creating a second account using a different email address or phone number.
• Using a nickname, pseudonym or “finsta” style account, meaning a fake or private Instagram account used alongside their main account.
• Using a parent’s, sibling’s or friend’s device to access restricted apps.
• Accessing platforms through a web browser when the app is restricted.
• Deleting and reinstalling apps after checks have taken place.
• Using “vanish mode”, disappearing messages, hidden folders, archived chats or cleared search history.
• Turning off location sharing when adults are checking, then turning it back on later.
• Using gaming voice chat, private servers or party chat to continue conversations away from visible social media.
• Moving from a more visible platform to a more private or adult platform when asked by someone online.

Parent reminder: A child being able to use a platform does not mean the platform is suitable for their age, maturity or vulnerability. Age limits, privacy settings and parental controls reduce risk, but they do not replace adult curiosity, regular conversations and checking whether the child is using hidden accounts, extra devices, gaming chat or browser access.

Popularity, Public Accounts and Grooming Risk

Groomers and people who want to exploit children often know where to “lurk”. They understand which platforms children use, what language is popular, which games or influencers are trending, and how to make contact feel casual or harmless. They may use the same slang, emojis, memes, music, gaming references or platform lingo as children so they appear familiar, safe or “one of them”. This can make it harder for children to recognise risk, especially when the contact begins with compliments, likes, shares, gaming help, gifts, in-game currency or attention.

Many children and young people also want to be noticed, followed and liked. For some, popularity online can feel powerful and addictive. Keeping an account public may feel like the fastest way to gain followers, views, likes, comments or status with peers. This is why simply saying “make your account private” may not work. Parents need to understand what the public account gives the child emotionally: attention, belonging, validation, confidence, identity, connection or the feeling of being important.

How to talk about private settings when popularity feels important: Start with curiosity rather than criticism. For example: “I can see why having followers feels exciting. Help me understand what you like about your account being public.” Then gently explain that a private account is not about stopping them being social; it is about choosing who gets access to them. A helpful message is: “Popularity should not cost you your privacy, your safety or your peace of mind.”

• Ask what they gain from a public account: followers, comments, confidence, status, belonging or opportunities.
• Explain that unknown followers are not the same as real friends, even if they like posts or send positive messages.
• Agree a safer compromise, such as a private account with approved followers only, no location tags and no unknown direct messages.
• Talk about “digital doors”: a public account leaves the door open to everyone, while a private account lets the child choose who is invited in.
• Review followers together and ask: “Do you know this person in real life? Would you be comfortable with them seeing where you go, who you are with and what matters to you?”
• Explain that groomers may use compliments, shared interests, humour, gaming language or popularity to build trust before asking for secrecy, images, location or a move to another app.
• Make it clear that the child can still be creative, social and confident online while keeping stronger privacy boundaries.

Practical Parental Control Checklist

1. Know every platform: Ask your child to show you all apps, games, accounts and usernames they use.
2. Set accounts to private: Private settings reduce unwanted contact but do not remove all risk.
3. Check friend and follower lists: Ask who people are in real life and remove unknown contacts.
4. Turn off location sharing: Review Snap Map, Instagram location tags, device location settings and game location features.
5. Limit messaging: Restrict direct messages to friends only and block unknown users from contacting your child.
6. Use built-in family tools: Use options such as Family Pairing, Family Centre, console family settings and screen-time limits.
7. Control spending: Require a password for purchases and turn off automatic payments where possible.
8. Agree device-free times: Bedrooms overnight are high-risk because supervision is lower and children may be tired, lonely or more vulnerable to pressure.
9. Check settings regularly: Children can change settings, so review them together at least monthly.
10. Keep the conversation open: Make it clear your child will not be in trouble for telling you something worrying has happened online.

Conversation Starters for Parents

• “Who do you speak to most online, and how do you know they are who they say they are?”
• “Has anyone ever asked you to keep a chat secret?”
• “Has anyone asked you to move to another app or private server?”
• “What would you do if someone asked for a photo, video, location or personal information?”
• “Have you ever seen something online that upset you, scared you or made you feel pressured?”
• “Can we look at your privacy settings together so I understand how the app works?”

Warning Signs That Need Attention

• Becoming secretive, anxious or angry when asked about their phone, console or online friends.
• Receiving messages at unusual times, including late at night or during school hours.
• Sudden changes in mood, sleep, school attendance, friendships or behaviour.
• Having multiple accounts, unknown contacts or unexplained new apps.
• Talking about older friends, online relationships or people parents have never met.
• Receiving gifts, game currency, money, vapes, lifts or other unexplained items.
• Being pressured to send images, meet someone, keep secrets or continue conversations that feel uncomfortable.
• Being threatened, blackmailed or told images will be shared.

Action you can take to make platforms safer

Safety Actions on Popular Platforms

Awareness Snapshot: What Parents Need to Know About Online Grooming and Harm

• Online harm is not rare or limited to “obvious” danger sites. Children’s social lives increasingly sit across phones, apps, games, livestreams, group chats and private messages.
• Ofcom research cited in the evidence pack found that 96% of children aged 5 to 7 in the UK go online, rising to more than 99% of children aged 12 to 15.
• Nearly 7 in 10 children in the UK use online services to help them feel closer to their friends, which means online contact can feel emotionally important and difficult to step away from.
• National evidence shows that online harms can include cyberbullying, sexual harassment, intimate image abuse, exposure to harmful sexual content, online radicalisation, grooming, coercion and exploitation.
• Police force data cited in the online harm material recorded 7,062 sexual communication with a child offences in 2023 to 2024, an 89% increase since 2017 to 2018.
• NSPCC research cited in the Snapchat briefing found an 82% rise in online grooming crimes against children over five years, with 73% involving Snapchat or Meta-linked platforms.
• The online harm material identifies Snapchat as a platform commonly associated with online grooming concerns, because disappearing messages, image sharing, Snap Map, streaks and private contact can make adult oversight more difficult.
• The evidence pack highlights that online gaming spaces, including Roblox and Discord-style communities, can create opportunities for social bonding, grooming and movement into more private spaces.
• Virtual reality and immersive platforms can increase risk because children experience interaction through avatars, voice chat and virtual spaces where adult supervision may be limited.
• Children may not disclose harm straight away. They may feel embarrassed, afraid of losing their phone, worried they will be blamed, or threatened by the person contacting them.

Key message for parents: The risk is not only the platform itself, but how the platform is used. Grooming often starts with ordinary contact: a like, compliment, follow, game invite, private message, shared interest, joke, gift, in-game currency or request to move to another app.

Savvy Ways Children May Navigate Around Adult Oversight

• Creating second or “backup” accounts that parents do not know about.
• Using fake names, nicknames or avatars so adults cannot easily identify contacts.
• Deleting messages, using disappearing messages, clearing search history or hiding apps in folders.
• Moving conversations from a visible platform to a more private app, group chat, gaming server or livestream.
• Using another child’s device, an old phone, a sibling’s account or a browser instead of the app.
• Turning location sharing on and off depending on who they want to see their location.
• Using private servers, invite-only groups or voice chat where parents cannot easily see what is being said.
• Changing privacy settings back after an adult has checked them.
• Using coded language, emojis, initials, memes or slang to hide the meaning of conversations.

Minimising concerns by saying “it is just gaming”, “everyone does it” or “they are my age” when the person has not been verified.

If Something Has Happened Online

• Stay calm: Children are more likely to disclose if they believe adults will help rather than punish.
• Do not blame the child: The responsibility sits with the person who exploited, pressured or harmed them.
• Do not delete evidence: Keep usernames, messages, images, screenshots, dates and platform details where it is safe to do so.
• Block and report: Use the platform’s reporting tools and block the account after evidence is preserved.
• Seek help quickly: Contact school, police, children’s social care or a safeguarding professional if there are concerns about grooming, exploitation, threats, sexual communication, blackmail or planned meetings.
• For nude or sexual images: Children and young people can use Childline’s Report Remove service to request help removing images from the internet.
• For online sexual abuse concerns: Reports can be made to CEOP through the National Crime Agency reporting route.

Simple rule for parents: If a platform allows private messaging, livestreaming, location sharing, anonymous contact, adult content, payments, voice chat or private groups, it needs active supervision rather than trust in age limits alone.