Cyber Crime Expert Sedgrid Lewis shares the four hottest
apps being used by teens and why parents need to monitor them.(posted from goodmenproject.com).
It’s holiday time and most teenagers have received a new
cell phone or Mp3 player. According to
Pew Research, over 78% of teens have cell phones with almost half of them
having smartphones. Teens will be rushing to online mobile app stores to
purchase the hottest apps on the market.
According to a recent study, 58% of all teens between the
ages of 12-17 have downloaded apps to their personal cell phones. This
generation loves to communicate through their cell phones. The movement away
from desktops to laptops has become problematic. The rise of sexting, bullying,
prostitution, and drug use are taking place over third party mobile apps. Apps have become the new way for teens to
engage in at risk behavior without the watchful eyes of their parents.
The list below is the hottest apps that are being used by
teenagers. We take a look at why teens love them and why you should monitor
them.
1. Snap Chat
Why Your Teen Loves It
Snapchat allows users to send images and videos to their
friend lists. The secret sauce is that the sender can place a time limit on how
long the receiver reviews the image or video. The content or “Snaps”
self-destruct from 1-10 seconds based upon the time limit set by the users.
After the snap self-destructs it is also deleted from the Snapchat Servers.
Teens love snapchat because of it’s simplicity and speed. It sends photos and
videos much faster than standard text messages. Teens sends millions of snaps
throughout the day of funny facial expressions or pictures of their pets.
Why You Should Monitor It
Snapchat is the number one sexting app on the market. Teens
send nude snaps to their significant others under the impression that snaps
self-destruct. Forensic Experts have stated the snaps can easily be recovered
thus they are never truly deleted from the receiver’s phone. Due to the
countless number of nude snaps, porn sites have popped up over the internet to
take advantage of the free content. There have also been numerous cases of
bullying with the app.
2. Kik Messenger
Why Your Teen Loves It
Super quick instant messaging app with over 100 million
users that allow teens to exchange videos, pics, and sketches. New Kik cards allow
user send Youtube videos, create memes, and gifs without leaving the app. Kik
Cards reached over 2 million users within first week of their launch.
Why You Should Monitor It
Teens are using the Kik app for sexting and dating. Teens
are sending nude selfies to one another through the app. The term sex buddy is
being replaced with Kik Buddy. Teens used Reddit and other forum sites to place
classified ads for sex by giving out their Kik usernames. Kik does not offer
any parental controls. Additionally, there is no way of authenticating users
thus making it easy for pedophiles to use the messenger app.
3. The Whisper App
Why Your Teen Loves It
Whisper is the Teen Confession App. It allows users to
superimpose text over a picture. The secret sauce is that users are anonymous
thus allowing for secrets to be posted. Over 70% of whisper users are women
under the age of 25. Whisper provides freedom for young users to share raw
feelings and emotions over simple pictures.
Why You Should Monitor It
Teens have started using the app for cyberbullying. Due to
the anonymous feature of the app, teens are posting pics of other teens with
derogatory text superimposed on the image. Users do not have to register to use
Whisper thus no user profile. Unfortunately, the app allow users to communicate
with other users nearby by using the device GPS location settings. Pedophiles
seek out female whisper users to establish a relationship. Recently, a Seattle , Washington
4. Ask.fm App
Why Your Teen Loves It
Ask.fm is one of the hottest social networking sites that is
almost exclusively used by teenagers and pre-teens. 25% of teens have posted
something on ask.fm over the past 30 days. It is a question and answers site
that allows user to ask anonymous questions. Ask.Fm has Twitter and Facebook
integration that allows users to connect with all their friends on those
popular sites.
Why You Should Monitor It
Due to intense bullying, Ask.fm has led to 4 documented
cases of suicide in the United States ,
Ireland , and Great Britain .
User engage in hyper bullying by constantly asking inappropriate and derogatory
questions. The app is totally anonymous and is not being monitored by the developers.
The key for parents is to monitor downloaded apps on their
child’s phone. Google the apps to learn if they are dangerous or inappropriate.
Gather all of your child’s passwords and user names for monitoring purposes. If
your teen refuses to give you his or her passwords, then download spyware such
as Mspy to review your teen’s cell phone activity. It is always better to be
safe than sorry.
