Parents guide to ten ‘dangerous’ apps that are misused by predators or cyberbullying kids

on November 11, two thousand fifteen at 9:00 AM, updated December 03, two thousand fifteen at 9:38 AM

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Rhonda Porter and other Akron school officials recently had a battle on their forearms with a group of chicks fighting and menacing each other.

All of it on the kik smartphone application, with no real names for any of the participants and all out of the school’s control.

Porter, a lawyer for the Akron school district said the constant flare-ups of bullying, threats and unwanted messages from potential predators are "eye-opening." She said district officials are permanently intervening, even putting up "cyber-fences" around schools to block unwanted messages to kids.

So she and Christina Hagen-Peer, a lawyer with Walter Haverfield, have embarked telling parents, teachers and administrators about what they consider the ten most "dangerous" phone apps to children’s emotional and physical safety.

"It’s a secret world that kids are partaking in and parents don’t know about it," Porter told The Plain Dealer. "It’s time for us to look at this situation, talk about it and figure out how we can help our kids through it."

Some are common and usually harmless, like the photo-sharing service Instagram, or are talk services that are not necessarily harmful. But many are anonymous, like kik, Yik Yak and Whisper, with each user going by just a made-up username. Identities and ages are never verified.

"The apps are not in itself a dangerous app," Porter said. "It’s just how it’s misused. Like a drug or something, it only causes harm when it’s misused."

She added: "Not all of these apps are dangerous or evil, but they can be for teenagers. They can cause children to be victims of sexual predators or cyber-bullies."

Porter and Hagen-Peer have put together a 100-slide PowerPoint presentation on the apps that concern them. The presentation includes the history of some well-known cyber-bullying cases, details of Ohio law and some steps parents can take to avoid issues with the apps or capture evidence of their misuse.

After a few presentations around the Akron school district, Porter and Henagen-Peer brought their message to a broader audience Monday at the Ohio School Board Association’s Capitol Conference in Columbus.

See the utter presentation below.

Here’s their list of "dangerous" apps, with their descriptions of them in italics. We have provided some extra description, in regular type:

Intended use: Permits people to capture an pic or movie and make it available to the recipient only for a specific time, then automatically vanishes forever.

How it is misused: This App makes kids feel much more comfy "sexting" with others.

Intended use: Snap Hack will permit the photo or movie sent via Snapchat to be saved onto the recipient’s camera roll where it can be viewed, edited and sent to others.

How it is misused: Seemingly "private" photos and movies received through Snapchat can be used to hooligan, harass, and/or abase the sender.

Founded by a 14-year-old high school student, BackChat lets users send messages to others without instantaneously exposing the sender’s identity. The recipient can buy clues (like the sender’s gender or where they go to school) to attempt to guess the sender. It is not as anonymous as other apps, since it is connected to Facebook or a Google+ account.

Intended use: Permits the recipient of an anonymous text to judge what is being said before they judge who said it. Permits children to send and receive "text messages" even without having cellular service.

How it is misused: It is a guessing game of who is texting who, but could hurt kids by receiving inappropriate texts without knowing who is responsible.

Intended use: Omegle is a free online movie and talk app that randomly "pairs" users in one-on-one anonymous "You" and "Stranger" talk sessions without having to register.

How it is misused: This service is packed with adults searching for sexual talk. Some choose to do so live; others suggest children links to porn websites; and since the talks are anonymous, they’re often much more explicit.

Intended use: A free alternative texting service without using phone numbers needed, just usernames. Permits texts/pictures to be send without being logged in the phone history.

How it is misused: It’s a very effortless device for "sexting" with more of a feel of being face to face. This handy App permits children to send private messages that their parents cannot see. Unlikely to verify the identity of someone on kik. Poses the risk of sexual predators talking with children to solicit photos and cyberbullying.

Kik’s website boasts of having two hundred forty million registered users and of being used by forty percent of teenagers in the United States.

Intended use: To be an authentic way for adults to connect with their communities and find their herds. To foster rich communities and to shove the boundaries on what it means to be a social platform.

Permits the user to post downright anonymous comments (without having to create a profile or account) that are accessible to the nearest five hundred people (within a one 1/Two mile radius) via GPS tracking capability.

How it is misused: It can turn a school into a "virtual talk room" where everyone can post his or her comments, anonymously, taking "cyberbullying" to a entire fresh level.

Intended use: A popular photo and fifteen 2nd movie sharing app that is lightly collective with other "followers" who can "like" the photo or movie.

How it is misused: Students can post embarrassing photos of others with a caption or to make brutal or abjecting comments about a photo posted by someone else. The victim is not notified about the photo or comments, resulting in the victim being harassed or abased without knowing why.

Private text messages can be posted by taking a "screen shot" of the text and posting it. It is a way for students to be targeted by predators as "followers."

Intended use: Ifunny App (and similar apps like 9gag ) lets users create posts using cartoons, photos with funny captions to post or send to others. They are called "memes." Once a comic undress (or captioned photo) is created, it can be uploaded to other social networks or saved to phones or computers.

How it is misused: This App may expose our junior children (preteens) to humor that they may not be ready for. Instead of funny captions, students can use mean or hurtful captions that can be used to hellion other students.

This app has users write anonymous messages over photos in a format often used in saluting cards or posters with inspirational sayings. The main topics, as shown near the top of the Whisper website include things like faith, relationships and animals but are also very adult and often sexual.

The Whisper homepage today features "Inspired by Porn: Duo Confess their Bedroom Sexcapades" and "Here are seventeen Very Sweet Things People Miss About Their Exes."

Intended use: Whisper also permits users to set up anonymous accounts (or random names generated by the app) to make their messages or confessions overlap onto an picture. Permits for creative expression when voicing emotions that users may be keeping inwards.

How it is misused: Is used by sexual predators to seek out vulnerable youngsters for grooming purposes. The App also shows the user’s location.

Intended use: This app connects adults to others nearby who may be interested in them. It’s a fresh way for adults to connect. Pictures/profiles display up of those nearby who are interested in meeting someone, using a map to pinpoint the location of the user. If both swipe right then the app permits them to message each other!

How it is misused: Lightly used by sexual predators to seek and find a child victim who is nearby. Tinder, Bang with Friends, Down and Meet Me all are adult meet-up apps that could be dangerous for children.

The Google Play app store describes ask.fm as "the #1 app for social Q&A that lets you explore your friends’ personalities by asking them to response wise, interesting and joy questions about themselves. It’s entertaining, entirely effortless to use and you can quickly connect using your Facebook, Twitter or VK login."

Intended use: Ask.fm is a social networking app that permits users to post questions from known or anonymous users who then post "answers." A place to ask questions in order to illicit legitimate answers.

How it is misused: It is a parent free digital space where kids can go to goof off and escape the built-in accountability of Facebook.

KNOWN FOR SEVERE CYBER-BULLYING!

50 million users and is adding members at a rate of 200,000 a day. It’s spreading from kid to kid, infiltrating middle schools and high schools at lightning speed.

The presentation includes some details about the deaths of teenagers Jessica Laney, Hannah Smith and Daniel Perry related to ask.fm bullying and teenage Rebecca Sedwick, related to kik bullying.

Porter told The Plain Dealer she considers use of kik an "epidemic."

"They’re (people on the app) anonymous and unless you come out and say this is so-and-so, nobody knows who is who and it can lead to some serious cyber-bullying," she said.

Kik’s website does not list a press contact and the company has not yet responded to a query The Plain Dealer sent Monday through the site.

She also pointed to Yik Yak as a major concern for her district. She said that unlike programs like Facebook, where you choose friends and only talk with them, Yik Yak talks are with anyone in the area.

"You are opening yourself up to the public at large, which could include adults, predators . anyone . and it’s totally anonymous," she said.

While Yik Yak is supposed to be just for adults, she said, kids lightly circumvent those controls.

"When kids log on to Yik Yak, they just have to thrust OK when it asks if you are seventeen or older and they inject this world of adult talk," she said.

Yik Yak’s website stresses that it does not ask for individual details when providing usernames to people.

"Share your thoughts and keep your privacy on Yik Yak," the company says.

The website, tho’, also addresses concerns with youthful users and provides instructions for parents to block the app from children’s phones.

"We’re committed to making Yik Yak a safe environment and keeping underage users off the app," the website says. " To do this, we actively block middle and high schools (secondary and primary) from Yik Yak via geofences." the site says.

Geofences are virtual barriers that send alerts whenever anyone attempted to send messages or data over the boundaries.

"Does it always work?" Porter asked. "Not necessarily, but it’s a embark. We’ve been attempting to put a block around all our schools."

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