Parents' Guide to Grom Social

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android Free Social Networking
Grom Social Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Christy Matte By Christy Matte , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 10+

Good intentions for kid social network, poor execution.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 10+?

Any Positive Content?

  • Grom Social App: Screenshot #1
  • Grom Social App: Screenshot #2
  • Grom Social App: Screenshot #3
  • Grom Social App: Screenshot #4
  • Grom Social App: Screenshot #5

Parent and Kid Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 1 parent review

 

 

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age 7+

Based on 1 kid review

 

 

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Privacy Rating Warning

  • Unclear whether personal information is sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays personalised advertising.
  • Unclear whether data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • Unclear whether this product uses a user's information to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Unclear whether this product creates and uses data profiles for personalised advertisements.
Learn more about our privacy ratings

What's It About?

GROM SOCIAL is a social-networking site geared toward kids who are too young for the Facebook terms of service. Founded by a 12-year-old with the help of family and friends, it is intended to connect kids. Kids can share status updates, pictures, and videos and then can like and comment on each other's content. They also can create an About page to share their interests. To expand their networks, kids can send friend requests and messages to each other. As of this review, the chat feature wasn't working; public messaging was all that was available. An avatar designer (Gromatar) lets kids design a profile picture if they would like. There's also a collection of games that includes some math games, as well as games that focus on cooking, arcades, puzzles, and so on. Some of the games seem to be designed by the Grom team and named after family members. Though parents have a lot of control over content and privacy, kids also have access to those controls.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say ( 1 ):
Kids say ( 1 ):

Despite the best of intentions for safety, this kids' social media app feels incomplete and full of flaws. Grom Social talks a good game about parent permissions, safety, and positivity, but there's little followthrough. The parent portal is a fantastic idea with the kind of granular controls many parents would love, but if kids can access those controls, what's the point? And then there's the irony of creating a "safe space" for kids and then filling it with advertising, especially ads that aren't even appropriate for kids. Even if that's not important to you, the user experience is shaky. The app crashes regularly, some features don't work, and there still isn't that much to do. Grom characters (largely made up of the family behind the app) do most of the talking, and not all of them seem to have a handle on what kids generally want to talk about. In some of the content, there's also some less-than-desirable messaging about girls, both in the virtual boyfriend chat game and the one about gym class. With better games, true privacy and parent control, and a more stable platform, this network could be a fun place for tweens to try their hands at social media.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about your social media rules about what should -- and shouldn't -- be shared online. How is Grom Social like other social media apps you've tried?

  • Talk about the benefits and drawbacks of safe social-networking sites for kids. How does this one stack up against others? When is a good time to start using the big sites like Facebook?

App Details

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