The best way to know what your teen may be doing on their phone is to pay attention to the apps and sites they use — and what they use them for. Make sure that you keep up-to-date on the new features of each of these apps since they may affect how your teen uses the site. Here are some of the most popular apps with teens and specific advice for dealing with each one.
The Big Four
Not only have you probably heard of these sites, you might use them yourself. Most teens also have accounts on these sites. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the Safety Center for each of these sites.
Safety Center: https://www.facebook.com/safety
The ubiquity of Facebook can give teens a false sense of safety, especially if their parents are also Facebookers, since they may view it as an adult-supervised area. Make sure your child knows how to lock down their Facebook feed to the public and guard against password sharing.
Watch out for: oversharing, cyberbullying, sexting, stalking, and identity theft.
Safety Center: https://support.twitter.com/groups/57-safety-security
Teens may think that since Twitter is limited to 140 characters that there’s not much trouble they can get into. Unfortunately, they’re wrong. Twitter posts can easily link out to dangerous sites and pictures can be shared for sexting. Instruct teens not to DM (direct message) people they don’t know.
Watch out for: sexting, identity theft, oversharing, cyberbullying, and stalking.
Safety Center: https://help.instagram.com/285881641526716/
Instagram is equipped with good privacy settings for keeping out people your teen doesn’t know — make sure they take advantage of those strict privacy settings. Also, it’s a good idea to turn off location tagging so that your teen’s exact whereabouts aren’t known. Instagram recently introduced a DM (direct messaging) feature so instruct your child not to accept messages from unknown Instagrammers.
Watch out for: sexting, oversharing, low self-esteem issues from lack of “Likes”, stalking, and cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying Center: https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/harassment-and-cyberbullying
Pinterest Privacy Help: https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/change-your-privacy-settings
Pinterest allows pinners to block specific people from interacting with your teen or even seeing their pins, as well as a way to report harassers. Pinterest allows pinners to create “secret boards” so that only those you invite may see your pins.
Watch out for: pornography, oversharing, and self-esteem/body image issues.
Apps On The Rise With Teens
In a typically rebellious fashion, today’s teens are leaving the “Big Four” sites in favor of newer sites that are less popular with their parents. Here are some of the most popular apps with today’s teens.
Chatroulette — and other sites that match up anonymous strangers
Safety Center: NONE.
What it is: Chatroulette is a free online chat website that pairs random people from around the world together for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website begin an online chat (text, audio, and video) with another visitor.
WARNING: As soon as you load the Chatroulette website, your “chats” will start which includes video from your webcam and a text chat box. No login is required and due to the anonymous nature of Chatroulette, exposure to live pornography is not only possible but highly likely.
What to watch out for: pornography, pornography, and more pornography.
Other sites that match up anonymous strangers, similar to Chatroulette: Omegle, Zumbl, Tinychat, Whisper, PostSecret.
GroupMe
Safety Center: NONE.
What it is: GroupMe is a private chat room for multiple people to share. It’s like sending text messages to several people at once, where everyone can see what others are typing. Pictures can also be shared.
What to watch out for: sexual predators, oversharing, cyberbullying, sexting, stalking, low self-esteem issues (from not being invited to a group), and identity theft.
Kik
Safety Center: https://kikinteractive.zendesk.com/entries/40268633-Safety-Tips-for-Kik-and-all-your-fave-apps-
What it is: An instant messaging client that allows users to send free text messages (using Wi-Fi instead of their SMS phone network) as well as photos and web pages. In addition to people they know, your teen could also communicate with strangers on Kik and even company brands.
What to watch out for: sexual predators, oversharing, cyberbullying, sexting, pornography, stalking, and identity theft.
Pheed
Safety Center: NONE
What it is: Pheed is a way to share any type of content in one place: voice notes, text, photos, videos, music, or even live broadcasts. Pheed users may rate their sites to conform to the movie rating system: G, PG, PG-13, or R, so that, in theory, parents can restrict a child’s access to only suitably-rated channels. However, it’s fairly easy for your teen to change the rating restriction whenever they like. Also, be aware that some Pheed channels cost money to view.
What to watch out for: sexual predators, oversharing, cyberbullying, sexting, pornography, stalking, and identity theft.
Tinder — and other location matching dating apps
Safety Center: https://www.gotinder.com/safety
What it is: Tinder uses your location (via GPS) to match you up with people located near you for dating opportunities. It scrapes information from your Facebook profile and attempts to find others near you with compatible Facebook interests. It offers a chat feature for matched users and lets them swap time-limited photos (similar to Snapchat). There are numerous perils involved with online dating apps like Tinder.
What to watch out for: sexual predators, oversharing, sexting, pornography, and stalking.
Other sites that match up users by location, similar to Tinder: Skout, Cuddlr, Grindr.
Snapchat
Safety Center: https://www.snapchat.com/safety
What it is: Snapchat is a photo/video sharing site which claims that shared pictures “disappear” after a time limit that the user sets between 1-10 seconds. Users take “Snaps” (photos, record videos, add text and drawings), and send them to a controlled list of recipients. Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their Snaps, after which they will be hidden from the recipient’s device and deleted from Snapchat’s servers. However, there are many ways to capture the images permanently — the easiest of which is to take a screenshot of the image. Additionally, there are third-party apps for Snapchat that can enable recipients to save Snaps on their device. Snapchat includes functionality that will warn the sender if the receiver is using any of these unsanctioned app and says it will block repeat offenders of this policy.
What to watch out for: sexual predators, oversharing, cyberbullying, sexting, pornography, and stalking.
Tumblr
Safety Center: NONE. However, they have a list of Community Guidelines.
What it is: Tumblr is a microblogging site — which means it’s like a blog but the posts are usually much shorter. You can make your Tumblr private or public. Treat Tumblr like you’d treat any blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger.
What to watch out for: oversharing, cyberbullying, sexting, pornography, stalking, and identity theft.
Vine
Safety Center: https://support.twitter.com/groups/57-safety-security
What it is: Vine allows users to share 6 seconds of looping video clips. Instruct teens not to DM (direct message) Vines with people they don’t know.
What to watch out for: sexual predators, sexting, identity theft, oversharing, cyberbullying, and stalking.
YikYak
Safety Center: NONE.
What it is: YikYak is similar to Chatroulette in that it pairs random people together — except that YikYak is only for messages, not video. However, one significant difference with YikYak is that it pairs people based on their proximity to each other, usually within a 10-mile radius. This location matching makes YikYak an especially dangerous site for children.
What to watch out for: sexual predators, oversharing, cyberbullying, sexting, pornography, stalking, and identity theft.
Read The Parenting Safety Tips For Teens On Mobile Phones & Tablets – E-Book
- Are Your Keeping Up With Your Teen & Mobile Technology?
- What You Can Do To Protect Your Teen On Mobile Devices
- Tips For Dealing With Common Dangers On Mobile Devices
- How To Protect Your Teen On Specific Mobile Apps
- Should You Monitor Your Teen’s Online Activity?
- How To Set Security Settings On Your Child’s Mobile Device
- More Internet & Mobile Safety Resources For Parents
- The Parenting Safety Tips For Teens On Mobile Phones & Tablets – E-Book – PDF Download