The following is a review of an app by mother-daughter contributors Jonna and Shelby, who are my experts on the “tween-scape.” Below is their unbiased review about the app musical.ly
Below is a mom-approved video of one of Shelby’s musical.ly creations (provided by Jonna and used with permission)
By Shelby, age 10
What is Musical.ly
I love Musical.ly!!! It is this cool newish video making app that I heard about over the summer. I love it! Almost everyone I know is on it. You basically choose “music” or “comedy” then, create a video clip by singing or talking to that sound. It’s easy to make the video go super fast or really slow. Also, (and this is important according my mom), you can have a private or public account.
What you can do on Musical.ly
In the app, you can communicate with new friends or add friends you already know. I love it so much! My name is SuperCoolCat123. In fact, I found this really awesome young girl who is funny, kind and fashionable…now she’s one of my heroes on musical.ly. Her name is Piper (piperrockelle).
Why I can’t use Musical.ly right now
One sad thing is that my mom says I’m not allowed it right now because I use it too much and she caught me stealing her phone too many times to make Musical.lys. Bummer!
You can “follow” me (SuperCoolCat123) and I’ll see it…when I can use it again!
By Jonna (mom)
A fun and creative outlet
The musical.ly app is a fun, creative outlet for my daughters (ages 6 & 10). Some adults like it too; well, I like making the videos of and with my girls – it’s been bonding. There’s not much bad with the app I can see at this point. However, because they can communicate (via comments) with others I would monitor closely, as I try to do.
Mixed Reviews
It seems nearly all my mom friends allow their kids to be on musical.ly, as well. I am hearing mixed reviews I agree with – Like: their children are trying too hard to get popular on the app or with their friends who see it; making videos that are too mature or sexy; we’re not sure who is out there surfing, and (my biggest problem with it) they are obsessed to get on it to make more videos and/or see who “likes” them…
Keep an eye on it
As I only allow these apps on my personal iPhone, it’s not so difficult to keep an eye on it. Lots of my daughters’ 10 year old friends have their own phones which, would make it harder to know what’s going on. My daughter is begging for a phone of her own and I say “NO WAY!”. Well, that’s another topic I can write about another time.
Other apps to look out for
As for social types of media apps/sites I only allow musical.ly and one other called Animal Jam. They seem to be just about what I have time to monitor. Other parents, to my shock, allow Facebook and group texting apps. Facebook, OMG no way should a kid be on it, in my opinion. And these young group texters seem to be fighting, getting hurt feelings, talking about boys too much and acting like “mean girls” – for goodness sakes they’re only 10!
