What apps should a 10 year old have?
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At 10, a reasonable set is: phone and contacts, camera, the utilities (clock, maps, notes, calculator), messaging with people on an approved list, video from a chosen list like YouTube Kids or Netflix, and games without chat.
What usually waits: WhatsApp and group chats, open YouTube, Roblox and other games with strangers in them, the open web, and every social platform.
That is the short answer. The longer one is that you are probably asking a question that cannot be answered as a list of app names — and the reason matters, because it is what stops you having this argument again in six months.
Two different questions
Search for this and you will mostly find lists of good apps for ten-year-olds: educational ones, creative ones, well-reviewed ones. Common Sense Media does this carefully and it is genuinely useful.
But that is not the question most parents are asking. "What apps should a 10 year old have" usually means which ones do I allow, and quality is not what decides that. Duolingo and Discord are both well made. Only one of them puts your child in a room with strangers.
The app name is the wrong unit
Here is the practical problem with a list of app names: it expires. TikTok could be banned in your country next year, some new thing will arrive that nobody has heard of yet, and Roblox will add a feature that changes what it is.
What does not expire is the capability underneath. Being reachable by strangers, sending a photo that cannot be recalled, being visible to people you have not met, a feed that learns you — those are stable. Apps come and go; those five or six things are the actual decisions.
So the useful version is: decide the capability, then look up which app needs it.
WhatsApp is the clearest example. It needs three things at once — open messaging, group chats, and sending photos. It is not "a messaging app a 10-year-old can have"; it is three separate decisions bundled into one icon, and the latest of them is what sets the age.
What opens at each age
This is the default ladder. Every date is a starting point to argue with, not a standard — and you can change any of them.
Open at 10
- Day oneCalls with people you both chose
- Day oneCamera
- Day oneClock, maps, notes, calculator, music on the phone
- At 10Texting people on your list
- At 10Video from a chosen list
- At 10Games without chat
Still ahead
- At 11Sending photos to your list
- At 11Music, podcasts and audiobooks
- At 12Texting anyone who has your number
- At 12Games with chat and other players
- At 12Filtered web
- At 13Open video
- At 13Installing your own apps
- At 13Group chats
- At 14One social platform, chosen together
- At 15A second platform
Familiar apps, and when they arrive
Worked out from the capability each one needs, on the default pace.
| App | Arrives | Because it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Messages | At 10 | Texting people on your list |
| Netflix | At 10 | Video from a chosen list |
| YouTube Kids | At 10 | Video from a chosen list |
| Spotify | At 11 | Music, podcasts and audiobooks |
| Fortnite | At 12 | Games with chat and other players |
| Minecraft | At 12 | Games with chat and other players |
| Roblox | At 12 | Games with chat and other players |
| Discord | At 13 | Games with chat and other players + Texting anyone who has your number + Group chats |
| At 13 | Texting anyone who has your number + Group chats + Sending photos to your list | |
| YouTube | At 13 | Open video |
| At 14 | One social platform, chosen together | |
| Snapchat | At 14 | One social platform, chosen together |
| TikTok | At 14 | One social platform, chosen together |
An app that needs more than one thing arrives with the latest of them. Where an app changes what it does, the capability is what matters, not the name on the icon.
Why these ages, briefly
The full reasoning is in the agreement, written to be read out loud to the child. The short version for the ones parents ask about most:
Games with other players — around 12
Most of what worries parents about Roblox or Fortnite is not the game, it is the chat channel attached to it. Game chat is where a lot of first contact with strangers actually happens — more than social media at this age, and with far less adult attention on it. Games without that channel can open years earlier.
Open video — around 13
The problem with open YouTube is not any single video, it is the next one and the one after that. A chosen list gives a ten-year-old plenty to watch without a recommendation engine that learns exactly what keeps them watching.
Messaging anyone — around 12
Once anybody who has the number can reach your child, that is the most likely route for a first contact from a stranger. Approved-list messaging at 10 gives two years of learning the tone and habits of texting before the door opens.
A social platform — around 14
This is the one where the law may decide for you rather than your ladder. It is also where being visible to people you have never met becomes the default rather than an accident.
Check your country before you plan the social media step. Australia has required platforms to keep under-16s off since 10 December 2025, and parental consent does not override it. The UK announced the same threshold in June 2026, expected in force Spring 2027.
Nobody knows the right age, including us
The American Academy of Pediatrics is direct about it: "research doesn't point to one perfect age when kids are ready for a smart phone." On social media they suggest at least 13, then add that one 13-year-old may be ready and another 16-year-old may not be.
So treat the ladder as a default you adjust, and put whatever you decide in writing. A date your child can point at does more work than a number that is right in theory.
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Questions people ask
Can a 10-year-old have WhatsApp?
On this ladder, not yet — it arrives at 13, because it bundles open messaging, group chats and photo sending into one app and the latest of those sets the age. WhatsApp's own terms also set a minimum age, which varies by country. If your family needs it earlier for a specific reason, the honest move is to bring that one step forward in the document rather than making a quiet exception.
What about Roblox or Minecraft?
Both need games with chat and other players, which is around 12 here. The distinction that matters is the chat channel, not the game: play without other players in it is much earlier. Both have parental settings that can disable chat, and using those is a legitimate way to open the game earlier while keeping the step.
Is YouTube Kids ok at 10?
Yes, on this ladder — it counts as video from a chosen list, which opens at 10. Open YouTube is a separate step at 13, because the recommendation engine is the difference rather than the content library.
My child is 10 and already has all of these. What now?
Common, and not a disaster. Nothing already given gets taken back — that rule matters more than any single app, because a plan that opens by confiscating does not get agreed to. What you can do is put dates on what is still ahead, agree the house rules, and write down what supervision ends when.
What if their friends all have it?
This is the real pressure, and it is worth answering honestly rather than dismissing. A date is what makes it survivable: "not yet" is an argument you have every week, "in March, and here is why" is a wait. It also helps that the reason is written down and is about the capability rather than about trusting your child less than their friends' parents trust theirs.