At 13, teens are less demanding on the content they post online. We turned to a practicing psychologist and psychotherapist Irina Pavlovskaya to better understand the nature of this phenomenon:

“13 years is the age of the formation of the Self-Concept.” It seems to the teenager that others constantly observe and evaluate him, and therefore he wants to attract more attention, having established themselves, even though shocking, riot, protest, and peremptoriness. These reactions of emancipation, opposition, and compensation, characteristic of adolescence, give the courage to be less demanding on the content that they leave without hesitation on social networks.”

Irina Pavlovskaya

Over the past 10 years, social networks have erased such a thing as confidential information. They easily allow acquaintances and strangers to get quick access to studying your personality, or to how you want to appear. But at the same time, you may be affected by negative content.

How social networks protect their users from unwanted content?

Tik-Tok specifically created a separate “Digital Well-being” mode for the safe use of the application by children. The mode protects users from obscene language or materials with a rating of 18+.

The moderation team here responds to all complaints. If any video has received more than 2 complaints, it will be submitted for moderation. The author receives a notification, and his clip is sent for review.

How social networks protect you from the consequences of your publications?

Now the moderation department of each social network can be called a rescue squad that will remove most of your unwanted Internet footprints.

“Almost all content in ASKfm is moderated. Subjects containing profanity are subject to removal. If the profile receives a lot of complaints, it will be deleted. Also, moderation spreads not only to text but also to images. We strictly relate to an image exposed parts of the body: full-screen photo with deep neckline and in underwear – will be removed.

Images of people in erotic poses, even if they are dressed, are deleted. We are absolutely sure that after a few years these users would not be happy if their friends, relatives, or soulmate find a similar photo on the Internet. We help protect users from more serious problems in the future!” – Victoria Moroz, Head of Moderation, ASKfm.

ASK.fm is a social network of anonymous questions and answers, which was created in 2010 and immediately became popular among schoolchildren. It’s hard to believe, but the first generation of users is already 23 years old! By the way, many of them during quarantined decided to return to the social network and read their children’s answers with interest.

If your account in ASKfm was created several years ago and access to it has been lost – do not worry! In this case, moderation will help to restore access or remove inappropriate content, after confirming your identity. You can write a request by filling out a simple form on the website in the Help section.

At any age, it is important to remember that once you post a photo on the Internet, you are 90% likely to post it there forever. Since there is no guarantee that after deleting the source, the photo will not appear on other sites involved in copying content.

How to check your digital footprint:

1. Type in Google your Name / Surname + city where you live. In the photos of the search result you will, most likely, find your photos, and in the search results there are links to social media and other accounts that you might already have forgotten about.
2. We do not recommend completely remove information about yourself from all social networks, because it is a great tool for communication and self-presentation. But we recommend you to review your publications and remove those that could have adversely affect your reputation.
3. Please note that photos or posts deleted from social networks will still be available in the search for some time.

In order to quickly clear the Google cache, follow these instructions

1. Go to Google photo search and type a query in which the photos appear in the search results (if your photo appears in the search results from several different requests, this algorithm will need to be done for each of them).

2. Right-click on the photo and copy the URL of the image.

3. Click on the “Remove outdated content” link.

4. Add a link to the image in the field and click on the button “Request removal”.

5. Indicate that the content has been updated on the source resource and click “Next”.

6. Re-insert the link to the image that you want to delete and click “Request Removal”.

If the photo from the site does not disappear within 1-2 days, repeat all steps of points 3-6.