Instagram is an online social networking service that is used for sharing photos. Instagram allows the user to take a picture and apply a digital filter and tags to it prior to sharing on a number of social networking sites. It’s is a wonderful way to easily process and upload pictures for friends and family to view. When the pictures are uploaded they become known as streams and other people will enjoy looking at them.

Instagram, however, is not all light and cheery, there is a dark side to using this social networking site. One of the negative aspects is that people will take pictures and repost them onto their own accounts. Often when people do this there is no credit given to the original owner despite this being a violation of terms that are set up by the social networking site. It is very important to monitor the pictures that teenagers are putting on this social networking site in order to ensure that they are not in breach of the terms that are laid out by the owners of the site and that others are not doing the same to them.

It seems like almost overnight that Instagram has become the new social hangout for teens and kids online.

A photo of Madonna from her Instagram profile.

Indeed, Instagram is the newest mega-social network that every parent needs to be aware of. Instagram is a photo editing and sharing ‘app’ that allows users to edit photos taken on their phone and post them to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with the click of a button.

Instagram photos are open to the public by default and Instagram lets users browse public photos posted by others and by people whom they follow.

Ever wonder what your teen is doing on the internet? Here’s a quick visual guide that breaks down what the tech savvy generation is up to and what some of the risks are.

Infographic Courtesy of OnlineClasses.org