I agree with you. For this reason, my wife and I kept both our children off the internet for as long as possible and have always strictly monitored them when it became impractical for us to deny it any longer (Pandora's box is open). Parental responsibility is absolutely vital - not just vague oversight, but micromanaged oversight. Such vigilance is essential.

We also drummed into both of them not to write or post anything online that they do not wish to be viewed by every single person on the planet, for all eternity. And even then, to think twice. We also told them a lot of (true) horror stories about what happens online. In short, we put the fear of God in them about the internet.

It worked. Both my children (now 18 and 13) took what we said to heart. They also have both witnessed (via school friends who have been in some appalling situations) the horrors of social media, scams, online bullying, blackmail porn, revenge porn, and the general plague of mental health misery wreaked by this poisonous sewer. The internet may be a convenient tool to those wise enough to handle it with extreme caution, but on the whole it has been far, far more destructive to humanity than useful.

Neither of my children want social media of any kind. My eldest (now an adult) had a brief stint on Instagram, purely to post a few Marvel superhero pics, but soon got bored of it and doesn't see the point. I don't blame him.

By the way - I would support legislation making social media illegal for under 18s. I think it should be restricted the way alcohol and cigarettes are restricted.