What is Bluesky? What parents need to know

Bluesky is a social media platform that acts as an alternative to X (formerly Twitter). Jack Dorsey, the former head of Twitter, created Bluesky, and it shares many similarities with X. Users are able to make 300-character posts, direct message each other, and share pictures and videos.

The platform launched to the public in February 2024. It has grown massively in recent months, driven by Donald Trump winning the US presidential election. Elon Musk, the owner of X, is a fan of Trump and has a position in his administration. Because of this, many people who do not like Trump decided to leave X so that they would not be supporting Musk. This meant that a large audience was looking for an alternative social media platform to X, which Bluesky provided.

Much like X, users can share 300 character posts, images and videos, both on their feeds and sent privately to other users. Users can also reply to or repost other users posts. Users have dubbed these posts as ‘skeets’, a combination of ‘sky’ and ‘tweets’.

The platform also mirrors X in how it handles identities, tying user accounts to their handles, typically formatted as @[account_name].bsky.social. Users having unique handles reduces the risk of someone successfully impersonating another user, as their handle will be different. However someone could still create an account with an extremely similar handle to the account they intend to impersonate. Unlike X, independent businesses and organisations can have their name put in the handle. This lets other users know that they belong to that group.

There are curated feeds on Bluesky, which feature only posts based around a certain topic. These topics can be broad, such as films or sports, or specific, like Chelsea football or pictures of cats. This helps reduce the risk of seeing content that may be inappropriate or unwanted, as all posts in a feed must be related to the feed topic.

Bluesky places greater focus on moderation of content than X does. They actively work on anti-toxicity features for the platform. Users have the ability to detach their posts from users who quote them and hide any replies they receive. This gives users a way to not engage with abusive users. Like X, Bluesky users can also block or report any abusive accounts.

User data is also more secure on Bluesky. This happens because multiple independent servers store the data instead of a single centralised mainframe. This makes it less likely that a data leak will expose a user’s information.

Bluesky doesn’t include a dedicated parental controls section in its settings. However, users can apply other filters and controls to manage content and make the platform more suitable for children.

In the Moderation section inside Settings, users can choose to mute specific words and tags, mute or block other accounts and enable or disable adult content. Adult content is disabled by default, so this does not have to be changed if your child joins Bluesky.

Using the moderation settings, users can also choose whether to hide or receive a warning when certain content, such as unsafe links or misinformation, appears on their feed.

However, all of these settings can be changed by the user easily and without a password. Because of this, a child could turn these safety settings off without their parent’s permission.

• Easily customisable feed to curate content and lessen risk of exposure to inappropriate content
• More moderated alternative to X
• Strong privacy and data protection
• No advertisements
• Decentralised framework means user data is more secure

While Bluesky does have strong moderation and filtering tools, it is still a social media platform. Like all social media, there is a risk of seeing inappropriate comments or images.

Bluesky has received some criticism for being an echo chamber. This is due to a lot of the userbase being left-wing, as many Bluesky users migrated from X because of the large right-wing presence on the platform. Nurture your child’s critical thinking skills so that they can recognise if they are in an echo chamber.

Users having the ability to privately message each other also represents a risk of the platfor. Your your child could begin messaging a stranger. With no identity or age verification being required to create an account, this stranger might not even be who they say they are.

Bluesky operates with an infinite scroll system. This means users can continue to scroll down their feeds for hours without ever running out of content. Keep an eye on how much time your child spends on Bluesky to prevent them from having an unhealthy amount of screen time.

Bluesky having no dedicated parental controls is also a risk, as even if you do try and put filters on your child’s account, they can easily change these settings without a parent’s knowledge or permission. Having conversations with your child about what they see online could help you learn if the filters are working as intended.