The apps your kids are moving to

Hey Friends!

Okay, we have to talk about this podcast episode because we are still not over it. We recently sat down with Mercedes and Anastasia Korngut — the sisters behind Small Bits of Happiness. They started their company during COVID at 13 and 11 years old. And what came out of our conversation with them was one of the most grounded, real talks we've had in a while.

They spoke about what teens actually wish their parents understood about connection and pressure. About navigating comparison on social media. About finding purpose as the thing that actually supports mental health. We kept looking at each other like…are we sure these are teenagers? Because they had more clarity than most adults we know.

If you haven't listened yet, listen here!. It's the kind of episode that reminds you there is so much good happening with this generation, even when what’s happening around us makes it hard to see.

WhatsApp is coming for your under-13 kid

Meta recently announced that children under 13 will soon be able to have their own WhatsApp accounts. On the surface, the design sounds thoughtful because kids can only call and text with contacts and groups that parents have approved, there's no access to Channels or Status or Meta AI, and children can't change their own privacy settings without a parent involved. However, the moment a child turns 13, every one of those protections disappears. Full WhatsApp access switches on: Meta AI, Channels, Status, and complete control over their own privacy settings.

Since the guilty verdict came out of the Meta and YouTube trials, we find that when that same company shows up with a product built specifically for children, it is genuinely hard to extend full trust, however well the parental controls are presented on paper.

Here’s our advice:

If you choose to allow your tween to use WhatsApp, treat the built-in controls as a starting point, not a safety plan. Device-level parental controls (the ones built directly into your child's iPhone or Android) are harder to bypass and don't expire on a birthday. Our Screen Sense Guide walks through every setting worth knowing in plain language, so you understand what's actually running on your child's device. In the meantime, stay close to their messaging activity, keep the conversation open about who they're talking to and where, and be clear with your kids that turning 13 doesn't close the conversation about safety. It just opens a new chapter of it.

The apps quietly replacing TikTok and Instagram that you've probably never heard of

While the major platforms are being dragged into courtrooms and facing billion-dollar verdicts, a new wave of apps is growing in the spaces nobody is watching yet. UpScrolled, C2 Live, Clapper, and PovChat AI all launched in the last year. They all market themselves as uncensored, unrestricted alternatives and teens are finding them.

What makes this wave different from the usual "new app" concerns is just how few guardrails exist. There is no meaningful age verification. Features allow live streaming with strangers. PovChat AI is built around ongoing story-based conversations with AI characters that can move in almost any direction, with nothing to stop the content from getting to places it shouldn't. These aren't fringe platforms in dark corners of the internet and they're being downloaded from regular app stores by teens who feel like TikTok and Instagram are getting too regulated and restricted.

Here’s our advice:

Have the "what apps are you actually using right now" conversation this week. Ask what they like about them, what their friends are using, whether anything has ever made them feel uncomfortable. If you hear a name you don't recognize, look it up before assuming it's fine. And turn on app download approvals on your child's device so nothing new can be installed without you knowing about it first.

After a week of app warnings and companies that keep finding new ways to remind us they're not entirely on our side — we keep coming back to that conversation with Mercedes and Anastasia. Two kids who decided the best response to a hard season was to build something that helps people feel better. That stuck with us.

If you're feeling the weight of all of it right now (the tech, the news, the teen attitude, the constant sense that you're one step behind), we just want to say you don't have to solve all of it at once. You just have to stay in it with your kid. Just have one conversation. Just ask one question. Take the time to find one moment where you're actually present and so are they. That's not nothing. That's actually everything.

You’re doing great.

—Cat & Nat