Teen Sexting Apps: What parents Need to Know

Jun 30, 2015 | Parental Controls

sextting

Today, parents have an altogether different set of teen issues to tackle with. Teen depression, suicidal thoughts and body image issues are not the only issues on a parents’ mind; helping their teens with a healthy sexual relationship is also a big challenge!

Dating violence is on the hike these days and a big reason behind this is the dating apps. But it’s not just dating apps that parents need to be on the lookout; there is a whole variety of sexting apps on the app stores and teens can’t be expected to not to be using them!

Sexting apps- what’s the risk?

Just in case if you haven’t heard the term, sexting is typically the exchange of sexually explicit messages, pictures or videos of oneself. And today, many teens consider sexting to be a part of flirting and ‘getting to know a person better’. While it might not be the best way to get to know a person ‘better’, it certainly is very risky and dangerous. And if you think that your teen is too sensible to do something, have a look at this infographic:

Now, as the Internet security and the concerns about the digital footprints are on priority for many adults, it certainly isn’t for the teens. They just want to have fun; exchange some naughty pictures and think, ‘how wrong could it possibly get?’ well. It can go totally wrong with the other person leaking or sharing the sensitive pictures with others. According to DoSomthing.org, 17% of sexters share the messages they receive with others, and 55% of those share them with more than one person.

 

Sexting Apps – Be on the lookout!

There are a lot of apps that are solely created for the sake of sexting. Now image your teen’s personal or suggestive pictures being shared via an app. This means it will be stored on an online server and then shared with the person who might be a total stranger. Here are some of the most popular sexting apps:

Snapchat

Snapchat might not sound unfamiliar to you as almost all the teens use it for messaging. But behold! Teens also use Snapchat for sexting as the app claims that picture messages vanish after a few seconds and if a person wants to take a screenshot of a picture, the sender gets informed. No matter how serious they are regarding the users’ security, still this app can be used for sexting with total strangers and that might not be a very good idea!

SextMessenger

sext

This is another app that is only meant for sexting and encourages teens to sext and consider it a cool thing to do. This app lets you connect with local men and women and encourages you to hook-up with them in real-time. here things can get pretty serious: these apps not only show your personal pictures to others but also share your location. Imagine all the fake profile holders only waiting to get in touch with innocent teens to cause them emotional, physical or monetary harm.

Wikr

This is an encrypted messaging app that is heavily used for sexting by teens. Since the app name doesn’t signify what it is for like the SextMessemger, parents might never know their teens are sexting. This app basically encrypts the messages and pictures and share it with the intended receiver through a ‘secure server’. But what teens tend to forget and overlook is that the securest of the servers can be hacked or have security glitches. Remember what happened with the celebrities using iTunes to store their nudes? Something like that can also happen to you teens, too.

According to a news report on CNN, a surprising 61% teens surveyed did not know that sending nude photos via text could be considered child pornography. And If caught, your teens might face the child pornography charges, too!

What can you do?

You can only discuss issues with teens and pray that they understand the stakes and refrain from such dangerous activities. But what if they don’t? Would you rather take a chance and let your teen suffer humiliation if someone makes their nudes public? To be brutally honest, parents need to put certain parental controls because there is no room to take a risk.

And this is where the parental control apps like FamilyTime help parents out. With FamilyTime, parents can have a remote look at all the installed apps that their children have in their phones and tablets.

installed-app

Not only that, parents can also block the unwanted sexting apps by simply adding them to the Blacklisted apps.

blacklist-app

This way, teens won’t be able to access these dangerous apps and when they try opening these apps, they’d get a message like this:

app_block

So with FamilyTime, take control and secure your teens from doing something they’d later have to regret. Remember that whatever goes online; stays online- forever!

FamilyTime helps families manage and protect their children’s digital lives.

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