A plain-English guide rating for 15 of the most common apps in UK family life. Risk, strength of safeguards, and how often you will see each app at the school gate.
These scorecards are a guide rating, not an absolute truth. They are designed to give you a quick, honest read on each app before a conversation with your child or before you set up a new device. Treat them as a starting point for thinking, not as the final word.
Every card scores an app across nine categories. Four are risk metrics — stranger contact, location sharing, in-app spending and harmful content. For these, green means low risk and red means a known, well-documented problem area. Three are strength metrics— how good the platform's moderation is, how useful its parental controls are, and how easy it is to report something when it goes wrong. For these, the colours are inverted: green means the safeguards are genuinely strong, and red means weak or close to absent. One category, age suitability, gives both the minimum age at which the app is technically usable and the age at which we would actually feel comfortable suggesting it to a UK family. The final category, prevalence at school, simply tells you how likely it is that your child's classmates already use the app — useful context if you are weighing up a no for now.
A few important caveats. First, apps change. A scorecard accurate in May 2026 may shift after the next update, especially as the Online Safety Act's child safety duties continue to bed in. We review every card at least quarterly and the date is shown on each card. Second, your child is unique. A fifteen-year-old with strong digital habits and a trusted adult to talk to can manage a high-risk app better than an eleven-year-old without those things. Always weigh the scorecard against your own child, their maturity, and what their friends are doing. Third, official age ratings still matter. PEGI, BBFC and the platforms' own minimum ages reflect legal and commercial decisions that sit on top of our guidance. If an app says 13+, we cannot lower that even when we think 15 is a more realistic age.
A suggested workflow. Skim the scorecard for the app you are weighing up. Click through to the full guide for the same app — every name links across. Set up the parental controls the guide recommends before your child opens the app for the first time. Have one short, honest conversation about the two highest-risk areas on the card. Then put a reminder in your phone to come back in three months: apps change, your child grows up, and what was the right setting in May will not necessarily be the right setting in August.
Finally, no scorecard replaces the basics. A child who knows they can tell you anything, without being shouted at, is safer on a red-risk app than a child who has been locked out of a green one. The scorecards exist to support that conversation, not to replace it.
Feed-driven apps where children post, scroll and message.
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 14
A strong recommendation algorithm can reliably surface age-inappropriate content within minutes. Family Pairing helps, but stranger contact via duets, lives and DMs remains the headline concern for UK parents.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 14
Snap Map and disappearing messages remain the two settings that catch UK families out most often. Family Centre is a useful step forward but only surfaces a thin slice of activity.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 14
Teen Accounts now apply stronger defaults for under-18s, but Reels can still serve harmful content and DM-based stranger contact is a known route to grooming attempts.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 16
Adult content is permitted on the platform and trends frequently surface graphic news, abuse imagery and harassment. There are no real parental controls; we would not recommend for under-16s.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Chat and group-chat apps. End-to-end encryption is common here.
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 15
Server moderation is wildly inconsistent and depends entirely on volunteer admins. Family Centre exists but is shallow, and large public servers can expose children to adult communities very quickly.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 13
End-to-end encryption means parents and platforms cannot see inside group chats. Year-group group chats are the most common cause of UK primary and secondary school escalations.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 16 - recommended from age 16
Large public channels can host extremist, sexual or scam content that is difficult to report and slow to remove. There is no meaningful parental control layer; we suggest avoiding for under-16s.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Games with chat, user-generated content or in-game spending.
Suitable from age 9 - recommended from age 10
User-generated experiences vary from genuinely lovely to flagrantly inappropriate. Robux spending and chat with strangers are the two areas where UK parents most often need to step in.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 12 - recommended from age 12
Voice chat with strangers and V-Bucks spending are the two pinch points. Epic's Cabined Accounts and parent dashboard cover the basics if set up properly before first play.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 7 - recommended from age 8
Risk depends almost entirely on the server. Single-player and trusted Realms are safe; open public servers can host adult chat and grooming attempts. Set Microsoft Family controls before opening online play.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Catch-up and live video platforms with comment or chat features.
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 13
Supervised Accounts and Restricted Mode help, but algorithmic rabbit holes still pull children towards mature content. Comments and Shorts are the weakest spots for younger viewers.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 15
Live streams cannot be pre-moderated and chat rooms move fast. Donations and subscriptions can rack up quickly, and streamers occasionally cross into adult territory mid-broadcast.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Suitable from age 18 - recommended from age 18
Kick's lighter moderation stance is its main selling point to streamers and its main risk to children. Gambling streams, adult content and abusive chat are easily found; this is an 18+ platform in practice.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Conversational AI apps with immersive characters or companions.
Suitable from age 16 - recommended from age 18
Emotionally immersive chatbots can produce sexualised, self-harm or grief-related content with light prompting. There is currently no parental dashboard worth the name; we would not recommend this app for under-16s.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
Headset-based social platforms with voice chat.
Suitable from age 13 - recommended from age 13
Social VR apps such as VRChat and Rec Room can expose children to adults in voice chat within seconds. Parent Dashboard is improving but does not catch user-generated worlds or in-game social rooms.
Reviewed: 2026-05-20
These ratings are guidance, not regulation. Always check official age ratings and your child's specific situation before making a decision.
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.