Infamous apps for cyberbullying (which your kids may be using)
Social media and the internet have tremendous outreach. Parents need to watch out for not only the time their children spend on phones, and the content they share, but also the applications they use.
Let’s look at some of the applications that might not be the best for your children.
Infamous and harmful applications:
1. Kik
This app is for people ages 13 and up. Anyone can sign up with a username and an email address. No phone number is required. This widely used app had 300 million registered users worldwide in May 2016, as reported by the Kik moderators.
Once you are registered, you can just come up with any username and start sending text messages, images, memes, and viral videos to users. You can also video chat or create groups and browse a lot of media content from within the app.
Since no phone number is required and you can create your own username, your identity is anonymous while you chat with anyone in the world. Kik has been notoriously known for being a site where nude pictures are shared. Many instances of predators coaxing children to send nude photos or blackmailing them, if the child did not send more, have come up.
According to The NewYork times, “Kik says it does not have the ability to view written messages between users. It only retains pictures and videos until the recipient’s device has received the message” — making it impossible for the police or parents to find out who was messaging or blackmailing their child.
A 15-year-old girl got in a car with a stranger she knew from Kik who then took her to his home, raped her, and tied her up. Later the Ohio Crime Task Force admitted that they would not have found the girl if the man hadn’t logged into her Facebook profile and pretended to be her. No other trace or information of the man could be found through Kik.
2. Tinder
This app is for people ages 18 and up. However, Tinder lets people connect with Facebook and upload their photos, which implies that teens as young as 13 could register on Tinder.
Tinder finds people according to your preferences and within your chosen distance. If two people have liked each other on the app, they can start chatting.
Tinder is known as a one-night stand finder and a place for easy hookups. Older men have been known to pretend to be younger in order to match with younger women. Any sexual predator can easily locate your child using the profile photos and the location — making it a platform for sexual harassment and stalking. People can also take screenshots or photos of conversations and post them anywhere.
Look at this TinderCreeps Facebook page to get a glimpse of possible communications on Tinder. See the photo below for reference:
Some of the other dating apps that you might want to watch out for are — Skout, Badoo, Hot or Not, MeetMe, Blendr, Down.
3. Ask.fm
This app is for people 13 and up. It allows you to ask questions and answer, or comment on friends’ or strangers’ questions and profiles.
A lot of these answers and comments are mean, sexual advances, threats of violence, and hate speech. According Business Insider, “nine teenagers connected to Ask.fm have committed suicide after receiving hateful anonymous messages on the site.”
This app is so notoriously known for cyberbullying that in 2013, throughout-the-UK schools were sending letters to parents to ask their children to stop using ask.fm as the application enabled extensive cyberbullying, which was connected to many teen suicides.
4. Snapchat
This app is for ages 13+. Users share pictures or a collection of pictures known as “stories”, publicly.
Snapchat’s selling point is that photos self-disappear in ten-seconds or less. Teens are known to share goofy or sexually explicit photos on Snapchat, under the impression that the photos would disappear completely. But anyone can take screenshots to save the photo for later.
Also, not a lot of people know that Snapchat servers download and save everything. Nothing is really destroyed. And to make matters worse, Snapchat has a license to do anything with the photos and the messages you send as long as you are a registered user.
5. Voxer
This app is for users ages 13+. To create an account, you have to sign up using your phone number. Users can send audio messages and media, make calls, and share their locations — all in a private chat, group chat, or a broadcast chat.
This app is popular for its easy voice messaging feature. This feature has also made the app a platform for cyberbullying. Voice message feels more personal, thus bully’s hurtful voice messages impact the recipient in a more harmful way than a text message ever could. Also, the bully can share your private voice message with anyone.
Voxer was one of the applications which Rebecca Ann Sedwick, a 12-year-old girl from Florida who committed suicide, was cyber-bullied on.
Recommended: Click to read the Six Heart Wrenching Cyber Bullying Suicides
6. Whisper
This app is for users ages 17+. However, when you install the app, it neither verifies your age or your birthdate.
Whisper’s tagline is — “Share Secrets, Express Yourself, Meet New People.”
In the app, you type what you want to share or confess, and Whisper suggests backgrounds. Then you can post this message publicly. Anyone can then comment or like your whisper. You can also chat with other users who can see your age, gender, and location if they let you see theirs.
Without the need for any name or an email, users can be completely anonymous. Exploiting this anonymity, strangers are known to share inappropriate content and make sexual advances via Whisper, while enabling their location.
7. Instagram
This app is for people ages 13 and up. As many already know, Instagram is used to share pictures.
All images that your children post could be seen publicly, as the default privacy setting on Instagram is public. Strangers can send requests to your child to become their friends on the app. Once they are friends, your child can send private messages and pictures to these strangers.
According to Ireland’s 2017 Annual Bullying Survey, Instagram has been found to be the most common app for cyberbullying (followed by Facebook and Snapchat).
Sexting and nude picture sharing are common on Instagram. A lot of sexual, explicit, and provoking content is flowing around on Instagram and is easily accessible to anyone. Children create fake accounts on Instagram to hide them from parents, and then use them for whatever they see fit.
8. Tumblr
This app is for people ages 13 and up. Tumblr boasts that this age limit is strictly enforced. But while registering, you can just enter your age, email Id, and a username, and tap “Next” while pretending that you have read the policies. No other verification is needed. Once you are a user, you can create your blog posts, and message other users.
Tumblr blocks word searches such as “sex”, “porn”, or “breasts”, but if you search for a specific person or celebrity, you would easily find dedicated groups and raunchy images. An Italian research team found that 28% of users were unintentionally exposed to pornography on Tumblr.
Children have also been found to blog on Tumblr about how sad their lives are, which invites others to comment on these posts. While some of those comments are helpful, a lot of comments are inappropriate and full of hate.
9. Line
This app is for users ages 13 and up. To log in, you need to verify your phone number or your Facebook account.
Line is a text, video, and voice-messaging app, with options for gaming and group chatting. Your profile and location are shown to people enabling users to search for people nearby.
Similar to Kik, in Line you can also create your own user id to chat, voice or video call, and share pictures with anyone.
Apps such as Line and Kik make it extremely easy for strangers to contact your child and have intimate conversations with them.
10. Musical.ly
This app is for users ages 13 and up. Musically is used for creating videos, live broadcasting and messaging. Other users can comment, like, and further share your videos.
Users generally browse through trending videos and hashtags. Trolling and inappropriate hashtags are common on this app — making it a harmful cyberbullying platform.
11. 9Gag —
This app is for users ages and up. 9Gag is popular for distributing funny memes and pictures.
All sort of pictures are shared on 9Gag, but nothing is moderated. For this reason, it has tons of content that you would not want your children to see.
Children can click on any group or video, even if the content is not safe. To disable safe mode, all they have to do is login through Facebook. To make matters worse, they’re then able to further share this inappropriate content. Children can post their own photos and receive comments and trolling — which is a popular trend on this application.
12. House party
This app is for people ages 13 and up. House party is for private and group video chatting.
Users can add nearby strangers and start video chatting with them. They can also add friends from other social media applications such as Line.
Strangers are known to coax children and teens to share their nude photos and meet them somewhere. Video chatting with strangers has caused many cyberbullying incidents and suicides.
13. Facebook and Twitter
Both of these apps are for people who are 13 and up. These two are the most widely used applications for creating public profiles and sharing private information, private messaging, and sharing media.
Cyberbullies publicly shame children or message/harass/troll them on both of these applications. Stalking and blackmailing with fake profiles are also common on both Twitter and Facebook. Inappropriate content is distributed around freely.
These applications were all built to enable remote communication and make it feel personal, but their capabilities have been misused.
On all these applications, people send inappropriate private messages and post nasty comments on others’ profiles and pictures. If not used appropriately, any app can pose a threat to your child’s safety because anyone can use these apps.
Keep an eye on the applications your children use, what settings they have enabled, and educate them about digital safety. In the meantime, use Kindigo to monitor to spot any troubling online activity for you.
Originally published at blog.kindigo.co on May 2, 2018.
