App Ed Review
Digital technology has changed the landscape of communication. It has become so influential that parents cannot deny its effects on children. Social networking is rampant these days with more and more children joining the bandwagon. It is no surprise that a vast number of American kids are active online. According to a report, 93 percent of the teens have access to internet so that have the freedom to do anything they want.
Facebook, twitter and Instagram are some of the most popular sites that are used by kids for updating statuses, photos, or post anything they want. Apart from their benefits such as enhanced communication, access to wide range of information, etc. there are many serious downslides of using social media sites. Cyberbullying is indeed a major one. Since kids today own cellphones, the chances for cyberbullying are greater than ever. To ensure your kid’s online safety you must install a kids monitoring app so that you can keep a tab on your kids’ online activities.
Cyberbullying and social media safety
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a comprehensive report stating that around 22 percent of the teens login to their favorite site over 10 times in a day. Such a level of engagement increases risk of cyberbullying and online harassment. Kids themselves are of carefree nature so they cannot understand what potential threats are there when adventuring into the wilds of internet.
To use a social media site, kids have to create an account by filling in some personal information. This information can easily make kids an easy target of some sexual predator or possible fraud and theft. Bullies can also hack such information and blackmail kids into doing some inappropriate activities. Therefore parental concerns over cyberbullying are not wrong since they need to ensure that their kid’s character or mental health does not get jeopardized.
Victimization of youngsters, especially teenagers has had an exponential growth in cyberbullying. Explicit messages, fake profiles, embarrassing photos, etc. posted on social media sites can attract the attention of kids. Often due to peer pressure or bad influence they may get involved into such activities. Once a child performs any of the aforementioned activities, there may be multiple consequences of it. We often read papers about kids committing suicides due to depression or cyberbullying. Bad effects of child abuse will consequently affect the mental health of a kid, as cyberbullying is mostly targeted on the kids aging twelve to eighteen.
Though we cannot stop the mushrooming of social media sites, we can definitely control our kids’ online reputation by keeping a tab on their activities.
Keeping kids safe through social media monitoring
XNSPY is a child monitoring app that can monitor the kids’ social networks, regardless of the device they use. This is a monitoring platform that can help parents view various social networking sites. It has a web-based control panel through which parents can remotely monitor their kids’ activities anyplace and at any time. Here are some of the XNSPY features that can minimize the chances for cyberbullying among kids using social networking sites.
- Facebook messenger
Facebook is the most dangerous medium for cyberbullying. Almost 75 percent of the teens in U.S use Facebook of which 54 percent of the kids have experienced cyberbullying. Since kids regularly update their profile pictures, online predators easily target their prey. XNSPY allows parents to monitor their kids Facebook Messenger so that they can read all the chat conversations taken place between their kids and the respective contacts. Most people send friend requests on Facebook after sending a message. You can view the inbox and read all the content as well as view multimedia files shared, if any. The name of the message sender and date and time stamp are also shown with each message.
This app has witnessed proliferation in the number of users over the recent years. It’s a platform where kids share photos, videos, etc. Bullies can use this medium to threat kids or hack their photos by adding them through a fake profile. Parents can spy on kids’ Instagram by monitoring their updates which are given along with the date and time stamp.
- Tinder
One of the popular dating apps, tinder is used by both teens and tweens. It is possible that your child may be dating a wrong person or they might be exchanging nudes over chats. To have a complete know-how of your kid, you need to monitor this app. here you can view the entire chat log as well as the chat thread which is shown in an organized manner, with the most recent message on the top. The contact name is shown along with the date and time stamp. You can also view your kid’s contact list on Tinder and learn about their dating preferences. This can help you make an informed decision about your kid.
Conclusion
With the ever-increasing social networking options available, cyberbullying has seen a marketed growth. In the bottom line, it is the parents who have to be cautious of their kids’ security because of social media. Using Xnspy child monitoring app can avoid your kid from falling into the dark pit of cyberbullying. With that said, parents also need to curb their kids’ time spent on engaging online so that their online safety becomes possible and easy.
Update: 2/12/19
For more information, please see StaySafe’s recently published Guide for Internet Safety for Teens
