The social media obsession of younger children is not behind the scenes. The socializing platforms like Facebook and Instagram have occupied attention and time of teens and tweens making them ignorant of many other important aspects of life. The researches indicate excessive social media use of children that exceeds up to nine hours a day. The time they spend on social media apps is the riskiest because this is when they are more likely to be involved in cyberbullying, child molestation, sexting, scamming, hacking, self-harm activities and innumerable online crimes. This article discusses the most dangerous social networking apps that parents should not allow their kids to use. However, if your kid is persistent to use any of these apps, make sure you supervise his/her use of that social media app.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a photo-sharing social media app that is gaining immense popularity among teens. The app is known for self-deleted messages and photos filters letting users to enhance beauty of their snaps. The self-deleted messages allow users to exchange text and photos without fear of being copied or saved. Whatever you exchange via Snapchat get automatically erased from the sending and receiving device after being viewed by the receiver.
However, this social media app is not totally secure. Many teenage girls and boys have been using the app for sexting and exchanging sexually explicit photos and videos. The receiver can take screenshot of the stuff to store and misuse it for exploitation of the target. There are many online platforms that publicly post photos stolen from Snapchat.
Facebook is the largest social network having billions of active users worldwide. The platform possesses a lot of information about the user such as name, addresses, schooling, liking, and habits. Many younger Facebook users keep posting about their activities on the platform without knowing that this information can be misused by someone.
The online child predators take support of Facebook and similar socializing platforms to collect information about the target. They trap younger kids with sweet talk and induce them to enter into romantic relationship. Once the target is trapped, they sexually exploit them and use them for producing explicit material.
Tinder
Tinder is a popular dating app that lets you find a romantic partner. However, it would not be erroneous to declare it as a one-night-stand app. Opposed to its development purpose the social media app is being used by sex offenders and scammers. They trap young girls and boys to sexually exploit them. The information provided by Tinder users is mostly unauthentic. Your teenagers are more likely to get trapped by these scoundrels.
Kik Messenger
Kik is considered the least secure instant messenger to be used by children. The app does not offer parental controls and provides safe haven to bullies and predators letting them hide their identities. The harassers use messaging and calling feature of the messenger to communicate with the target.
Instagram is the most popular photo-sharing platform that allows posting photos and videos online. The app is being used by bullies who make harassing comments on the post of target. Also, the platform is promoting body-shaming. If your kid is overweight or his/her body shape is not ideal, he/she is most likely to be victim of body-shaming on this platform.
How to Protect Kids from Social Media Dangers
Parents can protect their children from the menaces of the social media by supervising their online activities. Follow social media accounts of your kids to keep an eye on their posts, comments and friend-list. You can monitor chats of your teens using cell phone spy app.
Let’s Talk
Have frequent discussions with your kids about social media dangers. Let them know about cyberbullying and child molestation. Also, help them learn the ways to combat these endangerments. Introduce your kids with kid-friendly apps so they could have something as an alternative of adult-oriented social media apps.
Supervise Social Media
Follow your kids’ social media accounts to closely watch out their online activities. You can take support of social media monitoring app to supervise chats and almost every activity performed on commonly used social and instant messengers.
Use Privacy Settings
The social media apps offer privacy and security settings to prevent scoundrels and unknown persons from accessing your account. Make sure your kids use these settings to enhance the privacy of their social media accounts. Hope this article would be helpful in learning about dangerous social media apps for kids. Follow the above guidelines to make the social media world secure for your children.
