Tumblr

I found the general review to be very misleading for parents. I absolutely love tumblr myself, and I'm not saying it's a bad site, but it's definitely a site that can be customized to be incredibly inappropriate. Users can follow blogs entirely dedicated to porn, drugs, and gory imagery if they want to. As much as I whole-heartedly support the site as a whole, things that some parents would coonsider shocking are extremely easy to find for users. On another note, users are extremely interactive with one another and consider tumblr as a sort of secret society where outsiders are not welcome. I would not recommend the site for younger children, mostly because if other users find out that they are young, they will become incredibly malicious and will attack the young user through the sites "ask box" feature. Many a young teen and preteen has been mercilessly slaughtered by the unaccepting tumblr community.

kids can follow celebs or friends whos blogs they like, and its a great creative storage center

"Too much drugs, smoking, violence, swearing, etc." of course, there are pictures and people are huge opinionated jerks, and there's porn EVERYWHERE. But doesn't Facebook have a lot of these things too? Give it up, it's the Internet people, if you're an over-protective parent of a child 12 or under, GET THEM OFF THE COMPUTER, or at least get them a noepets account or Freddie Fish or something.

I absolutely love tumblr! In short, it's primarily used as a photo blog encouraging self-expression among it's community of dedicated users. I haven't seen it commonly used for any other purpose. I have a great experience using this website! It's easily one of my favorites! The interface is absolutely lovely, the concept is simple, & the experience is really dependant on only an individuals personal prefrences for quite a few reasons. First of all, the blog feeds displayed are choosen & based on ones interests, such as TV shoes, favorite foods, celebrities, ect. This is enabled because feeds are displayed only of users and tags one personally chooses to "follow". This standard feature is similar to that of the popular website, Twitter - which plays host to a completely different concept. The user community generally doesn't encourage sharing personal information. I've found that only a small amount of users choose to do so, from whom I usually see are those above 18. Most users remain anonymous. There is the option to allow other users to ask questions to answer publically within ones feed, however this feature is completely optional and the questions in which users choose to answer is ultimately their choice. Personally, I've never felt any amount or inkling of pressure to reveal any personal information aside from my interests. How much or how little one engages in the website and it's community is completely dependant on prefrence from person to person. So, one user might choose to post a ton of photos they like, while another might not post as much but privately look at many. Just like any other website, it has some possible causes of concern. The option to share personal information is open & unresritcted, so it's entirely up to an individual. Most images are circulated through the community (one person posts, a variety of users reblog the picture, which may lead to a variety of other users reblogging, ect), so personal pictures can be spread around in an instant if posted. Before parents allow or encourage their teens to use this website, I would advise they make this very clear. There is a great variety between the types of photos that are posted, including those of an adult or more mature nature. None of the photos I've seen on there were any worse than what I see on TV everyday, but they are defintely there. However, exposure can be limited based on ones personal choosing, i.e. if you decide to follow a user feed or tag of a broader or more adult nature - you'll probably be exposed to updates of a broader or more adult nature; if you choose to follow a feed or tag that's all about cupcakes - you'll probably be exposed to updates all about cupcakes. Users and photographs within this website often use or contain foul language. This website isn't for all teens. I would reccomend it for teens who are: mature, artistic, creative, visually stimulated, deep thinkers, ect. Common Sense Media is right on the money when they call Tumblr "refreshing". I've personally gotten a lot of enjoyment as an active user, & Tumblr has often been a source of inspiration in my life. Photo-blogging is a new form a self-expression, but it's my personal experience that getting into it has been a healthy way of experimenting and exploring and finding something to relate to on the internet and within myself. I think a lot of teenagers could get something good through being a user on Tumblr! I encourage interested parents seeking a similar experience for their teens to consider introducing it. I encourage curious parents of current users to allow continued use and encouragement within their comfort level. Lastly, I defintely encourage teens to try it if it appeals to their interests.