Social Media Agreements

06.02.2017 17:00

Behind the News

A new survey has found 53% of kids aged between 8 and 13 use Instagram even though you are not actually allowed to until after you turn 13. That rule is just one of many written in most social media sites' terms and conditions - that huge document that you have to say you've read before you can sign up. But what else is in there? Well, experts say most terms and conditions pages are way too complex for kids to understand, so they're campaigning for a change.

Every day it's estimated around 2 billion photos are uploaded online. If you printed those out and stacked them up, it'd make a column about 200 kilometres high, that's roughly the height of 22 Mt Everests. Every single day!

And Aussie kids are constantly adding to that pile using social media apps like Instagram.

KAYLA: I do use Instagram, a lot, yes.

ALICE: Maybe two times a day, I check it in the morning and the evening.

ALICIA: If I'm doing anything exciting I'll take a picture of that and put it on Instagram.

But with all those pictures of your life and yourself on the net, do you know who's able to look at them? Or who could use them?

ALICE: Umm I haven't really thought about that too much, but that would worry me a bit if people were using my photos.

JORDAN: Yeah, I'm not really quite sure what they can do!

ALICIA: I wouldn't expect people to be able to get onto my Instagram without having to request me first.

KAYLA: Yeah, I honestly don't know!

Well all of those details are written in here. You might know it as that thing you have to click 'agree' to before you can use a new app. It's a Terms of Use. And Instagram's, for example, is actually 5000 words long!

EMMY: It was very confusing, all the words were all jumbled up and they were very big words.

JORDAN: It's just put in a way so that adults can understand it, so that Instagram can't get sued or anything like that, but it's not really for kids to go `I cant do this, I cant do that.

ALICIA: It shouldn't take that long just to read the terms and conditions!

But when you agree to Terms like these you're basically signing a contract and agreeing to everything in it. Even if you don't understand it all!

ALICE: I don't know what I've agreed to! Instagram could hold me to all these things that I don't even know what I'm not supposed to be doing!

That's why a law firm in the UK has come up with this kid-friendly version of Instagram's terms and conditions to help kids understand what they're really signing up to.

KAYLA: I was quite shocked by some of the stuff that was on there, now that I can understand it.

JORDAN: They can watch any of our private messages, and record any of our personal information without us knowing.

ALICIA: It's so bad how they can keep your photos and messages, and how they know so much about you!

ALICIA: It says that they can give it to companies that we haven't given permission for them to have our pictures, and it's very scary actually.

ALICE: It's so much shorter, the fact that they can write it this short makes me wonder why they had to write it so long and difficult to understand.

Some social media companies are already working to make it easier for kids to figure out how to use their apps safely and responsibly.

And Instagram - which is owned by Facebook - says that they:
"spend a lot of time working with our community, including young people, and thinking about how we can create a safe and open environment for everyone"

But some say many of the big social media companies need to do better. And in the meantime, you might want to take a slightly closer look at what you've already agreed to before uploading your next great snap.