It’s high time that all the tech-savvy parents spy their kids on social media to figure out how safe and secure their children are. The vast acceptance of social media apps has given rise to a phenomenon we call as “addiction to social media apps among the teens” and utilization of handy tools is necessarily required. The international organizations, newspapers, journals, and websites have raised their voices in support of protecting the kid generation from being physically paralyzed as a consequence of addiction of harmful apps.
The contemporary teen generation is digitally acquitted to one or the other electronic device that proves a facilitator in providing access to social media platforms. The recent reports demonstrate the kids using social media apps are not much bigger, but they start when they are only eight years old. Uncontrolled use of digital media leads to exposing the teens to porn stuff and other dangerous elements. The average age of a kid involved in sharing or viewing porn-related posts is 11 and 70% of the kids are in between the ages of 8-18. This doesn’t stop here, but more than 10% teens confess sharing unwanted stuff on the social media apps i.e. Tumblr, Facebook & WhatsApp. When it comes to sexting, 80% of the total teens using digital devices have been found engaged in sexting.
The holistic grow in the use of dangerous and dating apps is subjected to poor registration policies, no check and balance by most of the websites and service providers, no age verification process and open access to sharing whatever the user wishes. The types of posts and material kids share on the social media scrutinize the respective agents that are searching their targets. 82% percent information the criminals acquired were taken from teens’ social media accounts to approach them.
When it comes to the major contributors regarding providing access to dangerous apps, Ask.fm, Tumblr, Tinder, Kik Messenger, Yik Yak, SnatChat and numerous others are on the top. The use of smartphones is also helping in letting the kids go on to viral sites and interact with anonymous users. The whole scenario presents a horrible picture that how kids get addicted to pernicious social media websites and apps, how they communicate with criminals in the disguise of their close friends and what it costs them. A number of eventualities have been reported in the form of hurting kids, bashing them, spiking, kidnapping and ultimately assassinations and loss of life.
The whole responsibility lies on the parents as they are the custodians of their families, teens and accountable for every action from their offspring. Kids must be educated about the security and increasing privacy when they use social media apps and websites. The parent, either he or she, must let the kids use digital devices only in their presence. Last but not surely the least, taking help of monitoring and spying applications has facilitated the parents to get better control over their kids. The spying apps not only monitor the children to keep them away from such sources but empower the parents as well to take decisive actions for the betterment of their teens.
