Pinterest, Instagram and the dangers of these sites

When I opened my Pinterest account they wanted my date of birth to continue. I’d never been asked for this before and thought it was a scam, so I just went with what was on the screen. Yesterday’s date. I’m now permanently locked out, as they think I’m under 13!
I don’t think I’ll miss them.

It's good they do ask for proof of age. I have never seen anything bad on Pinterest, but it probably depends who you follow and what you click on. Like the whole internet, there is good and bad, but we have a choice what we engage with and click on or search for.

Smartphones probably make it impossible to monitor what a child is looking at. There might be a way that you can download the content your child is viewing on their smart phone? Perhaps there's an app or something?

I think if someone's determined, they will probably use a friend's phone or computer to get around any parent controls. I would be more worried if my child was on the dark web than using Pinterest, but I also wonder how many parents know how to check if their child is on the dark web? (I wouldn't have)

J52

When I opened my Pinterest account they wanted my date of birth to continue. I’d never been asked for this before and thought it was a scam, so I just went with what was on the screen. Yesterday’s date. I’m now permanently locked out, as they think I’m under 13!
I don’t think I’ll miss them.

And, as maddyone says, once you open an account it's not easy to close it.

I did open a Pinterest account years ago, disliked the site and had a struggle to close the account.

J52 ?
A very advanced baby!

maddyone

My mother died recently and I’ve been trying to sort out her (very limited) internet presence. I’ve managed to close down her Facebook and Amazon accounts, but Instagram is proving very difficult. She only went on there to follow her granddaughter and great grandchildren in New Zealand, which to be honest was a bit of a waste of time since my daughter puts all the pictures on BackThen (a private site for families to share photographs.) Anyway, Instagram is difficult to close down. Anyone know how?

I Googled 'how to close an Instagram account when someone dies' and this came up. It's 'how to report a deceased person's account on Instagram'. Hope that helps.
help.instagram.com/264154560391256

Thank you Chestnut. I shall have a good look at that when we return home. We’re currently in Corfu on a ten day break. Following my mother’s death we wanted to get away for a bit, to rest and recover some equilibrium, so I’ll continue with wrapping things up next week. We’ve already managed to apply for probate and the flat was already sold subject to contract so we’ll be a bit quieter next week.

There is the Tell Us Once Service which informs all the main contacts about a person's death. Here's the link:
www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

Yes, that’s right. We used the Tell Us Once service both for my father when he died, and again for my mother. It’s very useful and saves a lot of work. But obviously sorting out the internet presence of a deceased person is not covered by that, I wish it was. I imagine there must be masses of accounts of people who have died floating around in the cloud.

I think people need to have a way of storing all their passwords for relatives to have access to all the sites they use. I have dozens of sites, but I have listed them all with passwords. I can't help thinking how complicated our lives are now. When my parents died 1999 and 2000 it was all so simple because they were not online at all.

On Facebook there is a way to have your account set up as a memorial or to have it closed down. I have chosen my husband to make this choice, in the settings on Facebook.

He can easily access my account by logging into my laptop (it has all the passwords remembered) and this is the same for all my online accounts.

Actually I want my online presence to stay as a memorial after I am gone because I think it's really sad when someone just dissappears. Many people now get creamated and there is nowhere to go and remember them. Some of my friends who have died have Facebook memorial accounts. I find it a comfort to still be able to see the photos and memories. To be able to write a memorial message on their anniversary.

Not everyone will want that, but I do. I was here. I am here and I am going to leave a lot behind, not on GN but in my actual real identity.

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Must be getting near Halloween; the gremlins are out in force tonight. 🎃

Chestnut Your posts are excellent. I agree with everything you say.

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Could the sites not use some sort of AI to pre-screen content? If AI can write dissertations it should be capable of discriminating between social sweetness & light, & horror most of the time. Then humans could do the final screen using consistent guidelines & their judgement, & also screen any reported content promptly.

Another gremlin reported. A different poster this time.