Apps your kids do NOT want you to know about!
I cannot stress enough the importance of talking to your kids about their phone use, how they are using their phone and the dangers associated with using some of these apps. The past couple of weeks has shown us all what happens when family don't talk. Later on I will talk about stuff that's downright scary that could possibly put your child in physical danger. Omegle even puts on its own front page a statement to be careful as predators have been known to use it.
SnapChat has features that could put your teens at risk. The lives of three young women in Philadelphia were cut short in December when their car slammed into a tractor trailer and burst into flames. Why? Surveillance video shows the girls speeding by moments before the crash. The family of Gia, a passenger killed in the crash believes the filter that allows you to clock your speed on snapchat played a role in her death. One of her friends shared that she was snapchatting throughout the night and the car and they were showing their speed and how fast they were driving. According to Snapchat, it takes distracted driving seriously by including a do not snap and drive warning message when the geofilter is first accessed. And they think kids actually read this and listen to these measly warnings? You need to talk to your kids about the dangers. Do not let warning messages be the guidelines that direct your kids behavior. It has to come from you! There is a lot of good that can come with social media but there is a lot of bad. Reporter: District attorney family Casey has been outspoken about the dangers of social media and in particular the.
KIK made headlines when 13-year-old Nicole lovell was murdered when she met one of
the suspects involved in her murder on the kik app. According to kik, they have zero tolerance for any behavior that potentially affects the safety of their users as well as having a 24/7 support team that offers blocking and reporting tools to allow users to flag unwanted content or can tact. The reality is that there are cases where children have been lured into dangerous situations and some have even been killed across the country by people who are luring them through social media.
Omegle, another one gaining attention puts two users in an anonymous chat room with VIDEO and on the app's own front page there is a frightening warning, "predators
have been known to use omegle so be careful." New Mexico police are investigating a case of a stranger who allegedly targeted a 13-year-old girl on the app. The mother says within minutes of her daughter using the app, she received inappropriate messages and threats. First it was very innocent. Then all of a sudden the person on the other end started becoming vulgar. The home page say's the people you encounter on Omegle may not behave appropriately and that they are solely responsible for their own behavior. Really? What good could possibly come out of this App? If your kids have this App or on their computer, you need to delete this App now! I do not normally tell parents to take Apps or things away from their kids, but this is an App that needs to go!!
As a reminder parents, I am not trying to scare you. I am trying to inform you. It may seem like it is impossible to stay ahead. You have two choices...don't even try to keep up with your kids or try to keep a step ahead. It is not easy, but with tools like The Keep A Step Ahead playbook (coming soon), hopefully parents can start to get ahead of their kids. Kids are going to be ahead of the game but it's still so important to have that open line of communication with your kids and it is the best you can hope for.
The parents need to be on top of technology and they need to know how these apps work. The best way is to get my upcoming book where it teaches you how to download them yourself and get on there and see how the features work. Check out if there's security settings and determine whether that's right for your child or not!
You must always Keep A Step Ahead!
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