Apps & online platforms
When are they ready for the apps everyone is talking about?
Age limits are only the starting point. See how privacy, DMs, strangers, recommendation feeds, posting, location, spending, and parental controls change the answer by age.
Find a specific app or platform
Age-first browsing
Start with their age
Choose an age to open the full Apps & Online Platforms decision page. Each age page compares all 10 current guides using the age-specific recommendation row: Good fit now, Works with guidance, or Better to wait.
Age 5
0 good fit · 1 guided · 9 wait
Age 6
1 good fit · 0 guided · 9 wait
Age 7
1 good fit · 1 guided · 8 wait
Age 8
3 good fit · 0 guided · 7 wait
Age 9
3 good fit · 0 guided · 7 wait
Age 10
3 good fit · 0 guided · 7 wait
Age 11
3 good fit · 0 guided · 7 wait
Age 12
3 good fit · 0 guided · 7 wait
Age 13
7 good fit · 3 guided · 0 wait
Apps & online platform age guides
Go deeper on the apps and platforms families ask about
Our app and platform guides separate official account rules from privacy, messaging, discovery, parental controls, and age-by-age readiness.
Messenger Kids
Parent Guidance Recommended
Messenger Kids is one of the few social/messaging products intentionally built for children rather than teens. It can be a reasonabl…
App / platform · Recommended from age 8Spotify
Parent Guidance Recommended
Spotify can be reasonable before 13 only through a parent-managed young-listener account or other family-controlled experience. Stan…
App / platform · Recommended from age 8YouTube
Parent Guidance Recommended
YouTube can work before 13 only as a deliberately supervised experience. For younger children, the important distinction is not simp…
App / platform · Recommended from age 13Discord
Parent Guidance Recommended
Discord should wait until the applicable minimum age, and age 13 is best treated as a supervised introduction. A small private serve…
App / platform · Recommended from age 13Parent Guidance Recommended
Instagram should wait until at least 13. Teen Accounts now provide meaningful defaults, but they do not eliminate social comparison,…
App / platform · Recommended from age 13Parent Guidance Recommended
Pinterest is a wait-until-13 platform. Even at 13, families should treat it as an algorithmic, user-generated discovery service that…
App / platform · Recommended from age 13Parent Guidance Recommended
Reddit is a wait-until-13 platform. Current teen protections meaningfully restrict mature content and make social features more priv…
App / platform · Recommended from age 13Snapchat
Parent Guidance Recommended
Snapchat should wait until at least 13, and age 13 is still a parent-guidance stage. The biggest concerns are not just content but p…
App / platform · Recommended from age 13TikTok
Parent Guidance Recommended
TikTok is a wait-until-13 platform for standard use. At 13, built-in teen safeguards help, but Family Pairing and active conversatio…
App / platform · Recommended from age 13Twitch
Parent Guidance Recommended
Twitch should wait until at least 13, and age alone is not the whole decision. Live content and chat can change instantly, creator c…