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Last Updated Feb Three, two thousand sixteen 7:49 PM EST

ATLANTA –Kik Messenger, a smartphone app popular among junior teenagers, is on the defensive following the stabbing death of a 13-year-old doll in Virginia who told friends she was using Kik to connect with an 18-year-old man.

Like Instagram, Snapchat and other messaging rivals, Kik provides free, effortless and instant connections to other users anywhere. Kik enables people to message each other one-on-one or in group talks, and to share photos, movies and other content. By enabling people to identify themselves only by an invented username, it provides more anonymity than services such as WhatsApp, which connect people through their phone numbers.

Law enforcement officials say the application is dangerous in part because parents cannot reliably prevent anonymous strangers from contacting their children if they use it.

Kik made an updated guide for parents available on its website following the arrests of two Virginia Tech students in the slaying of Nicole Lovell, a seventh-grader who lived two miles from their campus in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Kik also shoved out an update to the app, available on Google Play and Apple’s iTunes store, and had Apple raise Kik’s age-appropriate rating on Monday from 9+ to 12+, closer to its requirement that no one under thirteen use the service, terms that are collective by Kik’s rivals.

"We are attempting to educate all users, parents and teenagers," company spokesman Rod McLeod told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The parents’ guide stresses that teenagers inbetween thirteen and eighteen need a parent’s permission to use Kik, but there’s no technical way to enforce that or to prevent a child from injecting a false birthdate, McLeod acknowledged.

"A lot of blame has been placed on Kik in the last two days," McLeod said, but he noted that many other social media networks operate the same way. "It’s a problem that’s spread around the industry," he said.

Nicole Lovell had evidently accounts on Kik and other social media services against her parents’ wishes. "She was able, at thirteen years old, to go and set up profiles on Facebook that we had no idea about. And a minor should not be able to do that," her father told CBS News correspondent Don Dahler. "We have no idea who they’re talking to."

Kik Interactive Inc., the privately held Waterloo, Ontario-based company that launched the app in 2010, claims more than two hundred million registered users, including forty percent of U.S. teenagers and youthful adults. Investors recently valued their collective stakes in the company at $1 billion.

Asked whether making technical switches to eliminate the anonymity feature would harm Kik’s business model, McLeod said. "I think part of the allure of Kik is that it is anonymous."

Many parents have vented their concerns on social media since the damsel’s bod was found Saturday. "Attention all Parents: If your child has the APP "KiK" on their phone. lose it!!" one woman posted on Facebook.

"There are a lot of bad elements out there. We certainly spotted that in Blacksburg this week," said Adam Lee, special agent in charge of the FBI in Richmond, Virginia.

"Kids do all their communication on their phone," Lee added. "It’s a lot stiffer to keep that computer in the kitchen like we used to. They are mobile with their communication. For parents to think they can go in after the fact and see what they are doing is a little naive."

McLeod said the company responded quickly when the effort to find Nicole turned to her use of Kik, acting on an emergency FBI request to provide information that the company believes led to the arrests of both suspects.

David Eisenhauer, Legal, is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder. His fellow engineering major, Natalie Keepers, Nineteen, is accused of helping Eisenhauer before and after the crime, as well as helping to hide the bod.

Police have not said whether they have recovered any of their electronic devices.

The company’s website advises law enforcement that it does not have access to the text of Kik conversations but, with a court order or in an emergency, can provide users’ location information, including their device’s most latest IP address and timestamps of their talk messages, tho’ not their content.

The company also can give authorities some user-provided details, such as name, email address, profile picture and birthdate, but says "this information isn’t verified by Kik, meaning we don’t have any way to know if it’s accurate."

Jenkins said Kik’s switches do little to alleviate his concerns, since there’s no way to verify a user’s age or parental permission.

"Kids are going to find a way around that . You can have a 10-year-old with a cellphone claiming to be eighteen and be on there," he said. "I don’t know that it switches a entire lot in the way things go forward."

Kik messenger app scrutinized following death of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell – CBS News

Kik messenger app scrutinized following 13-year-old’s death

Last Updated Feb Three, two thousand sixteen 7:49 PM EST

ATLANTA –Kik Messenger, a smartphone app popular among junior teenagers, is on the defensive following the stabbing death of a 13-year-old chick in Virginia who told friends she was using Kik to connect with an 18-year-old man.

Like Instagram, Snapchat and other messaging rivals, Kik provides free, effortless and instant connections to other users anywhere. Kik enables people to message each other one-on-one or in group talks, and to share photos, movies and other content. By enabling people to identify themselves only by an invented username, it provides more anonymity than services such as WhatsApp, which connect people through their phone numbers.

Law enforcement officials say the application is dangerous in part because parents cannot reliably prevent anonymous strangers from contacting their children if they use it.

Kik made an updated guide for parents available on its website following the arrests of two Virginia Tech students in the slaying of Nicole Lovell, a seventh-grader who lived two miles from their campus in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Kik also shoved out an update to the app, available on Google Play and Apple’s iTunes store, and had Apple raise Kik’s age-appropriate rating on Monday from 9+ to 12+, closer to its requirement that no one under thirteen use the service, terms that are collective by Kik’s rivals.

"We are attempting to educate all users, parents and teenagers," company spokesman Rod McLeod told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The parents’ guide stresses that teenagers inbetween thirteen and eighteen need a parent’s permission to use Kik, but there’s no technical way to enforce that or to prevent a child from coming in a false birthdate, McLeod acknowledged.

"A lot of blame has been placed on Kik in the last two days," McLeod said, but he noted that many other social media networks operate the same way. "It’s a problem that’s spread around the industry," he said.

Nicole Lovell had evidently accounts on Kik and other social media services against her parents’ wishes. "She was able, at thirteen years old, to go and set up profiles on Facebook that we had no idea about. And a minor should not be able to do that," her father told CBS News correspondent Don Dahler. "We have no idea who they’re talking to."

Kik Interactive Inc., the privately held Waterloo, Ontario-based company that launched the app in 2010, claims more than two hundred million registered users, including forty percent of U.S. teenagers and youthfull adults. Investors recently valued their collective stakes in the company at $1 billion.

Asked whether making technical switches to eliminate the anonymity feature would harm Kik’s business model, McLeod said. "I think part of the allure of Kik is that it is anonymous."

Many parents have vented their concerns on social media since the woman’s figure was found Saturday. "Attention all Parents: If your child has the APP "KiK" on their phone. lose it!!" one woman posted on Facebook.

"There are a lot of bad elements out there. We certainly eyed that in Blacksburg this week," said Adam Lee, special agent in charge of the FBI in Richmond, Virginia.

"Kids do all their communication on their phone," Lee added. "It’s a lot firmer to keep that computer in the kitchen like we used to. They are mobile with their communication. For parents to think they can go in after the fact and see what they are doing is a little naive."

McLeod said the company responded quickly when the effort to find Nicole turned to her use of Kik, acting on an emergency FBI request to provide information that the company believes led to the arrests of both suspects.

David Eisenhauer, Legitimate, is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder. His fellow engineering major, Natalie Keepers, Nineteen, is accused of helping Eisenhauer before and after the crime, as well as helping to hide the bod.

Police have not said whether they have recovered any of their electronic devices.

The company’s website advises law enforcement that it does not have access to the text of Kik conversations but, with a court order or in an emergency, can provide users’ location information, including their device’s most latest IP address and timestamps of their talk messages, tho’ not their content.

The company also can give authorities some user-provided details, such as name, email address, profile picture and birthdate, but says "this information isn’t verified by Kik, meaning we don’t have any way to know if it’s accurate."

Jenkins said Kik’s switches do little to alleviate his concerns, since there’s no way to verify a user’s age or parental permission.

"Kids are going to find a way around that . You can have a 10-year-old with a cellphone claiming to be eighteen and be on there," he said. "I don’t know that it switches a entire lot in the way things go forward."

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