Tumblr is one of those apps that are more of a representation of contemporary zeitgeist and culture. This app allows celebrities, politicians, fashion designers, sports stars etc. to share stuff with their fans. The app has become young people’s favourite for this exact reason.
Tumblr has played a real positive role towards serving social justice and equality and what’s worth mentioning is that a lot of communities have been founded and run by teens. However, in practise, Tumblr comprises of large amounts of inappropriate content that kids should be kept away from. But what exactly is this app all about?
What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is very much like Blogger or WordPress, a blogging platform with a unique way to share content with others. It allows for reposting of blogs and even let users create collages of photos, videos and articles that express a user’s personal aesthetics. Kids love this app because using it, they are able to find people with similar aesthetics.
Anyone, literally anyone, can be part of this online community. Tumblr is famous for requiring very less information for its users making it easy to set up. All you require is a valid email address and username/password for your account. After that, you will have access to almost everything that is posted on Tumblr. Under default settings, Tumblr will make your every blog post public, unless you choose to make it private, and that would require you to setup another blog.
Tumblr—who uses it?
With approximately 450 million users, this blog website has around 225 million blogs that are producing around 80 million every day.
Just like others apps, Tumblr also doesn’t like to care about the minimum age enforcement, and with its 12 years min. age requirement, not many people would have to lie about their age on this website.
Around 70 percent users of this app are under 35 years of age.
Why Tumblr is dangerous for teens?
The first reason why tumblr is not suitable for kids is because of its Metatags. These tags allow for easy content search. It’s similar to hashtags and allows users access to unlimited content with just a single keyword.
Second, it allows users to post anything in the name of art and media. That allows for limited censoring of the posted content.
Third, it has an unrestricted online community that allows anyone to be a part of this blogging website. So if a 40-year-old predator wants to sign up as a 15-year-old boy, there isn’t anything that can be done about it.
Talk to your kids about Tumblr
If your kid wants to have a Tumblr account, talk to them first about the online safety concerning this blogging platform. You need to talk to them about the risks of reposting and how to change their settings in the first place. You can also follow your kids’ Tumblr account, so make sure to do it.
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