Late into the night, many students around the globe are awake not studying, but “blogging” on the social media website, Tumblr. Tumblr is a site where anyone can run a blog, posting whatever they please. Users can post audio, pictures, text, video, and more.

Tumblr was started in 2007, but in May 2013 the website sold to Yahoo, making 27 year old David Karp a billionaire.  It now has 141.6 million users

Junior Elise Duda is an avid Tumblr user. She says she enjoys using Tumblr because “a lot of the content on Tumblr is based on satire, humor, and comedic relief which I find to be very refreshing and enjoyable in a society where everyone is obsessing over the bad things in the world.”

Although plenty of teens find this blogging site to be uplifting, many parents have complaints.  Concerns include pornographic images, strong language, and images of violence.

“I think it’s dangerous to kids’ futures to put too much information about themselves into cyberspace.  Kids tend to share too much, which puts their personal thoughts out there for many to judge.  They usually lack the maturity for this kind of subject matter…… I don’t want my child to be viewing inappropriate material out in cyberspace,” said Rebecca Dubro, whose daughter is sophomore Olivia Dubro.

Susan Nolan, sophomore Brennan’s mother, disagrees.

“Tumblr is a way for teens to express themselves.”  Although she does wish there was a way that Tumblr “could censor inappropriate pictures, info, comments, etc. at a moment’s notice,” she is aware that that is not possible.

“People on Tumblr are usually very easy going and very open-minded. I think Tumblr is actually the only website online that really has the friendliest users where people are normally very supportive and kind,” Duda says, referring to the fan community she joined.

Tumblr has a minimum age restriction of 13, but Rebecca Dubro would like that changed to 18. However, much like Facebook, this age isn’t regulated.

The age restriction rule is among many other policies that parents aren’t aware of, such as the content blocking policy. Under Settings, users can block pornographic tags from “dashboards” of users that are under 18, or anyone, for that matter.

Neither Dubro nor Nolan was aware of this. Nolan thinks it’s a great idea. “I love [the content blocking policy].”

Although community areas of Tumblr contain inappropriate material, it’s considered a safe haven by many teens because they have the opportunity to creatively express themselves.

The unlimited self-expression on this site can also have negative side effects. The “trend”, “thinsporation” consists of people posting images of mostly girls at unhealthy weights. Many young girls are influenced by these photos and may develop an eating disorder, depression, low self-esteem and self-harm issues. The “thigh-gap” is used to motivate girls to be skinny but not in a positive manor.

Other blogs described as “dark,” “depression,” and “sad teen,” also have a strong influence on mental health issues. These blogs post images and texts almost glorifying depression and self-harm. To troubled teens this may put their mindset in dark places and instead of helping them deal with their illnesses in a healthy way, teens may feel even more discouraged and act dangerously on them.

The anonymous setting when sending a message is frequently used to conceal the identity of users who send hate messages. This is a form of cyberbullying. But any user can set the option to block anonymous messages.

Every open and creative site has opportunity for abuse, but Tumblr was created as a tool for creativity and self-discovery.

“Tumblr is a community that I enjoy to participate in because of the content and the people. While other sites online are all obsessing over the latest drama in social media or politics, Tumblr is always there for me to get away from all that and join in on the humor and happiness in the site,” Duda says.