Kids pick up on technology lightning fast. If you’re a parent, it’s your responsibility to keep track of what your child is uploading and downloading as well as use of their smartphone.
To give you a hand, here’s a list of the top potentially dangerous apps you should restrict or closely monitor your children’s usage until they’re mature enough to safely use these apps. These questionable apps are not inherently dangerous themselves but their potential for misuse requires active parental involvement and control.
Snapchat
- This app is presenting picture-messaging that supposedly lasts several seconds before being deleted. Unfortunately, the idea of something being deleted after being sent and uploaded by a user is a fantasy.
- First of all, all pictures are stored, which was proved by hackers who obtained thousands of “deleted” pictures.
- Secondly, Snapchat encourages immoral usage by users sending pictures of a pornographic nature, which is bad enough itself, plus the pictures can be easily downloaded by taking a screenshot during the first three seconds after the picture was opened.
- Snapchat has just released its new “snap map” feature. Many parents are worried it presents major safety concerns for children. The following video from My Secure Family explains how this new feature works and how you can make sure your child is protected.
My Secure Family is a hub and community for parents to help them in equipping and protecting their children.
Vine
- This app allows record and share videos of six seconds with friends online. On the one hand the app is absolutely safe and entertaining. On the other hand it becomes dangerous due to the constant desire to attract attention among teenagers.
- The last most shocking and dramatic example was a game when teens set themselves on fire and shared it online. The so-called game was a “fire challenge”, which engaged hundreds of teens. Unfortunately, we can expect many more challenges in future.
Tinder
- Tinder is another VoiP app that allows chatting and photo exchanging. The core problem of the app is it represents an online dating platform where people are looking for romance or even a long-time partner.
- Although the idea of people finding love is absolutely acceptable, your teenage children might come across online predators, scammers or simply people who are much older. The app won’t check your documents, which means anyone can create any profile they want.
9Gag
- 9Gag is a picture exchanging platform where users post their images. The problem is that all pictures download on 9Gag aren’t moderated, which increases the possibility of 18+ content your child can easily access.
- The second reason why you should prohibit this app for your children is cyberbullying. The app has no restrictions on commenting the pictures, which leads to cruelty and derision of users.
iFunny
- This app is used to create comic strips by using captions and photos. While laughing is something every kid needs, teenagers tend to be sarcastic or even cruel when it comes to humor.
- Just as 9Gag, iFunny raises the most vivid problem of cyber bullying among teenagers, which adds it to the list of questionable apps for children.
In order to protect and secure your child you should monitor and track their online behavior. If you covertly monitor their online activities you can install PUMPic.com – kid’s mobile monitoring app which allows remote tracking of your child’s iPhone and Android smartphone.
The features include GPS tracking, incoming/outgoing calls and SMS monitoring, social media and application monitoring. You can monitor each application downloaded and block them remotely if needed through your PC or cell phone. Make sure you know which apps your child is using.
Did you know there’s a new phenomenon rapidly gaining interest in the programming world? That is the growing number of teenagers and some younger children developing apps. Click here to learn more.
