Want to be Facebook Friends? No problem!

Want to be Facebook Friends? No problem! – So you think you know your teenager’s activity on social networks because you’ve checked their Facebook and nothing there offends?

Think again. That version of your little darlings is just for us parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. In fact, that’s the version they want the family to see, not the version of themselves they present to their pals.

A recent poll by MediaCom, the UK’s biggest media agency, revealed what and why they post on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

So here’s the deal – Snapchat, which instantly deletes pictures and videos once sent and viewed, is where your sweet young things are sharing stuff they don’t want you to see. The poll showed that 29% of teens use Sapchat expressly because the family can’t see their profile.

With 1,200 eight to 19-year-olds polled, it’s clear Facebook is used for the family, 41% agreeing it gives relatives a nice clean image.

Instagram will be a truer picture of their real selves, as they can choose who sees their pictures and also follow celebrities.

This all hardly comes as a surprise, when parents and grandmas have long been sending Facebook friend requests and invading teenagers’ wished for privacy. Which of us ever wanted to share everything in our lives with mum and dad when we were teens?

More and more youngsters have begun to shun Facebook, which bought Instagram in 2012, partly to sell advertising to teenagers, but failed in a bid to snap up Snapchat in 2013.

Parent company Snap Inc was floated on the stock exchange this year, its value around £18 billion. Seems somebody is getting a touch of teen reality!