In this age of internet frenzy, kids have found ingenious ways to chat with peers, friends — even total strangers — without their parents’ knowledge. There may be nothing wrong with the chat apps themselves, but as a parent, being aware of various social media platforms your teenager is using can help prevent them from exposure to dangerous elements.
Here are eight apps that teenagers and younger children are using to chat with others.
Snapchat
This one shouldn’t be a surprise, but it should be of concern. Snapchat’s popularity rose for allowing users to send super brief messages/media that receivers can view before they disappear. Messages “self-destruct” automatically after the time limit is up.
Why you should be concerned:
Snapchat gives the illusion of no-consequence messaging. Kids may be tempted to throw caution to the wind and share silly, embarrassing, or inappropriate messages and photos.
The reality is, messages can be saved and stored by an external app.
The good news? Parental controls. Limitations can be set on the people who can contact your kid and who views their stories.
However, there’s now an app for Snapchat that can let users hide their identity. And THAT could be dangerous…