What are kids really hiding from you on their phone?

Are you familiar with vaults for your smartphone? Vault apps aim to make it easier for smartphone users to hide and encrypt all sorts of things on their phones, from photos and text messages, to entire call logs and contacts, and even other apps that parents or spouses might not want you to know you have on your phone.

I would estimate that roughly 99 percent of kids have something to hide, whether that is by deletion or by which kids use a vault to hide it. When you think about what kind of practical application these might be used for, infidelity certainly is the first one that comes to mind, however, kids have figured out how to exploit this too.

Mom and dad, this is your opportunity to have that uncomfortable conversation with your kids and teens about sexting and other harmful online behaviors. You do not need to be a tech expert to have this discussion, but it is a good idea to understand what these apps are, and how to find them.

Vaults or Ghost photo apps are apps that disguise themselves as one thing (a calculator, a game, or a file manager) but with the correct passcode will open the ‘vault’ to hidden photos, videos, apps, or other inappropriate content. Parents can do a search in the App Store for Vault and hundreds of results will come up.

The most notoriously used app for kids is an app called Private Calculator Plus. As the name suggests, Private Calculator doubles as a calculator and a virtual locker to store all your password-protected media files, and plays them all inside of the app, too. Kids like this because you'd never suspect a calculator app would hide all

your private files if school administrators or parents were to get their phone and search their phone, this would look simply like a calculator. Plus, they'd need to know the password to gain entry. This is a great tool to hide things from prying eyes.

Here's how it works:

To launch the app, tap the icon that says My Calculator (replacing the word "Private" with "My"). Once inside, it looks like all the other virtual calculators available at the App Store. And sure, go ahead and use it like a calculator: along with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, you can calculate square root, percentages and more. But only once you enter the right numeric code – something you set up the first time you use the app – will you see a list of all your hidden files buried within.

So how do you know if your child has a ‘vault’? First, you can check their phone for what seems to be duplicate apps, like two calculators. Another way is to do a ‘vault’ search in the App Store from their phone or tablet. If the vault app is not on their phone, the word “GET” appears next to the app for download. However, if the app is already on the phone the word “OPEN” appears next to the app. This means that the app is already downloaded on the device.

How to Prevent Kids from Using Vault Apps

If you want to do your best to keep these apps from your kids’ devices, set parental controls and restrictions upfront. Many of the new Family Sharing plans require kids to ‘Ask Permission’ to download any app, even free apps. This will help you to take control of what apps they are using. Check with your mobile plan provider or look for parental controls or restriction options on the device itself. If you let them download apps with their own Apple ID or they have an android, then get on the phone and look for anything that might not look right. Ask your kids about apps that you are not familiar with and ask them to show you how they work. Find out the name of the App and then Google it. If it shows up as a vault, then you know you have found something. You have to start to think like a teenager and think about if you were going to hide something, what would you do? The best advice to give your kids is when it comes to privacy and photos “don’t take a photo that you don’t want your teacher/boss/mom/dad to see.

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