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Protecting a teenager on social media works best as a shared safety plan: review privacy and contact settings together, use content controls as support, and make sure they know they can ask a trusted adult for help without blame. Settings vary by platform and change over time, so check each account’s current controls rather than relying on one universal checklist.
Start with a conversation, not surveillance
Ask your teen to show you the social platforms they use and walk through the safety settings together. Talk about which posts, messages, or interactions have made them uncomfortable and what they might do if it happens again. Explain why you want to adjust a setting and give them an age-appropriate role in deciding how it should work.
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Make clear that they can come to you or another trusted adult with questions or concerns and will be heard without judgment. UNICEF recommends involving older children in online privacy decisions and encouraging them to tell a trusted adult when something online makes them upset, uncomfortable, or scared: UNICEF’s online privacy checklist and online safety guidance.
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Review each platform separately with your teen. Account defaults and labels differ, so use the live settings in the app and consult that platform’s current help pages when a control is unclear.
#1 Best Overall
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- Visibility: Check who can see profile details, posts, stories, and activity. Consider making the account private if that fits your teen’s needs.
- Discovery: Review who can find the account through search, recommendations, contact syncing, or other discovery features.
- Messages and requests: Check who can send direct messages or message requests, and who can follow or add the account.
- Safety actions: Locate how to block, restrict, mute, and report an account or piece of content before a problem occurs.
- Location and device access: Review location sharing and permissions for contacts, photos, camera, and microphone. Limit permissions the teen does not need for their age and use.
UNICEF advises reviewing privacy settings on devices and services and keeping devices updated. Its checklist is useful for a joint review: https://www.unicef.org/parenting/child-care/online-privacy.
Use content controls without relying on them alone
Explore each service’s content, recommendation, and parental-control settings with your teen. Choose age-appropriate options together, then discuss how to recognize material that is distressing, age-inappropriate, misleading, or likely to cause harm. Encourage them to step away and tell someone they trust when content worries them.
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Parental controls can help manage some websites, device use times, communications, or spending, depending on the service. They do not necessarily control what a social platform recommends or who can contact an account. Check the specific control’s scope rather than assuming it covers every app or type of interaction. The Australian eSafety Commissioner explains the range and limitations of parental controls in its guidance: Parental controls.
Controls are a supporting layer, not a substitute for judgment, conversation, or the platform’s block and report tools. European Commission guidance published in 2025 recommends private-by-default accounts for minors and child-friendly safety mechanisms to reduce unwanted contact; it is policy guidance for its context, not a test of individual platforms or a universal legal rule. See the Commission’s guidance announcement and the 2025 Communication.
Rank #3
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Agree on what to do when something feels unsafe
Talk through a response before your teen needs one. They do not have to keep replying to someone who makes them uncomfortable, and they should know that seeking help is more important than worrying about getting in trouble.
- Stop engaging. Your teen can end the conversation and avoid sharing more personal information.
- Save relevant details when appropriate. Keep a record of the account, messages, or post if it may help explain what happened or support a report. Do not forward or repost harmful material.
- Block, restrict, or mute the account. Choose the available option that best stops contact or visibility.
- Report the account or content through the platform. Use the in-app reporting route and follow any instructions it gives.
- Tell a trusted adult. Agree in advance who your teen can contact if you are unavailable, and respond calmly when they do.
- Escalate serious situations locally. For credible threats, coercion, exploitation, or immediate danger, contact the child-safety service or emergency authority appropriate where you live.
The right external reporting route depends on your location; no single agency or procedure applies everywhere. The Australian eSafety Commissioner offers Australia-specific information about online sexual abuse and related risks: Protecting children from sexual abuse online.
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Revisit the plan as your teen and the apps change
Social platforms update features, settings, and labels. Recheck privacy, visibility, contact, content, and device permissions periodically, and when your teen starts using a new service or a feature changes. Keep the review collaborative: as a teenager gains maturity, give them more responsibility while staying available to help. The goal is for them to understand how to protect themselves, not simply to have settings chosen for them.
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The Australian eSafety Commissioner reports that in a 2024 study, 55% of Australian children surveyed had been in contact with someone they first met online, while 34% of parents knew about their children’s online contacts. These are Australian figures, not global estimates. The guidance page does not state the study sample size or methodology, so the percentages should not be generalized beyond what the source reports: eSafety Commissioner guidance.
Quick Recap
Best Value
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