Published: October 7, 2024
What Apps Should Your Kids Stay Away From?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Online safety experts from Gabb revealed the top apps they would never allow their children to use.
The list was filled with social media apps that leave the door open for predators or other bad actors to reach their children on. The list included TikTok, Kik, Facebook Reels, Instagram and Twitch.
TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Reels all have similarities as they offer endless content for children to scroll through which can leave them addicted to their screens. TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, have both been targeted by lawsuits in the past for their addictive nature and have faced intense criticism for allowing dangerous content to spread across their platforms.
Kik meanwhile is a messaging app that rose to popularity in the early 2010s and has remained a common app used by teens. The messenger, however, is proliferated by criminals, and the ability to join unmoderated message groups makes everything even worse. In 2022 and 2023, it was placed on the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s “Dirty Dozen” list because “Kik’s crawling with criminals. This anonymous messaging app is a ‘predator’s paradise’ for grooming kids and sharing images of their abuse, in addition to hardcore porn and prostitution ads.”
Finally, Twitch is a streaming website that is mainly used to stream video games. However, the platform’s moderation standards are both weak and inconsistently implemented, leaving the site full of many streamers exploiting their sexuality for views. Last December the website even changed its policies to allow full nudity before quickly changing course and cracking down on sexual content. Nonetheless, the site remains filled with people skirting the rules and towing the line, creating an environment unsuitable for children.
While these are some of the most dangerous apps for kids, thousands of others would make this list as well. Ultimately, parents are responsible for the content their children regularly consume and are the ultimate line of defense for their children’s safety. Movieguide® advises parents to have frequent conversations with their children about the content they are consuming to ensure they are not being exposed to harm.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Online safety experts from Gabb revealed the top video games they would never allow their children to play.
Unfortunately, the list was full of extremely popular games that are played by hundreds of millions of kids every day. The games the experts named included Roblox, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Fortnite.
A common factor between all of these games is the use of largely unfiltered communication that exposes players to extremely inappropriate content while also opening the door for scams or getting exploited. These games, however, have individual problems as well.
