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This is terrible, I’m so sorry you’re dealing with it. This does not sound normal based on my child’s school (I also have a third grader). The crush talk has definitely ramped up, and I know they are lightly teasing each other about it. But (as far as I know) it hasn’t moved online, and the school counselor is engaging with students about the teasing. I would definitely reach out to the school about this—it’s unacceptable.

I’m sorry this happened! Agree with @hitchhiker: they do tease a bit about who likes who (my oldest is in 4th) but definitely nothing online … although I know my daughter is somewhat protected by having friends without phones and walking to school so no bus time.

I would email the counselor to discuss it and get advice. They should at least know about it. But we have family friends who have said the struggle related to the bus ride is terrible because there are phones, inappropriate content and a lack of adult supervision (same age, oldest in 4th). So I could see it happening there … I hate the digital age sometimes!

@Corduroy: so sorry this happened to your kiddo! I don't think it's really "typical" for 3rd grade but I'm sure it does happen, and it gets much more prevalent as kids get older and their screentime increases and the parental supervision decreased. Do you know the other parents in this situation? I'd definitely reach out to the teacher AND the counselor--I wouldn't let the school brush it off (if they try). They need to nip this stuff in the bud now before the kids get older and the mean online content is much more damaging.

Personally, my own 3rd grader is very much offlines. I haven't even let her do Roblox and Minecraft even though she claims every other kid in her class has it and is on it--and that's why I won't let her have it. I don't need her to be online every evening with her classmates. She's busy with after school activities and homework as it is, so I've told her we don't have time. We've also had long talks about screen time and brain drain and a bunch of other statistics (I actually teach middle schoolers about screen time safety, 21st century skills in a 21st century world, balancing media with real world activites, etc).

I know there are *some* positives to certain types of screen time, but to me that negatives greatly outweigh the positives at this age. My kids do get some screen time, it's just heavily limited and heavily supervised.

This is absolutely terrible all around. I would go right to the parents of the kid making the tik tok videos.

Whoa. That's terrible. I definitely would get the school and teachers and principal involved. It's not okay.

My girl is also in the 3rd grad. School starts a year later here, so technically 4th grade in the US, but I feel that maturity-wise it's about the same. Before the pandemic there was an incident with the older kids at school and certain things were shared by a student on Snapchat. I don't know the exact details, but the police was involved and all the parents were formally briefed on cyberbullying and the dangers of social media. This needs to be stopped before it gets too far. Those kids shouldn't be able to even have cellphones in class.