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MamaBear’s Most Popular Posts in 2014

MamaBear Most Popular 2014 Posts

2014 was the biggest year yet for kids and parents experiencing life in the digital world. To help parents navigate their families across all the challenges, MamaBear published dozens of articles for parents looking for online safety tips, teenage social media trends, and advice about digital parenting. Among all the great content, following are the 5 most popular posts our readers loved the most.

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1. MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban

It may seem like an oxymoron, but in 2014, the big trend in social media apps was secrecy.

Multiple apps that allowed users to create anonymous accounts became popular with tweens and teens — which created a problem for parents.

The anonymity offered by apps like Whisper, Secret, Ask.fm and others put many youths at risk for being bullied, harassed, or approached by dangerous strangers. Parents used MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban to get them in the know.

2. Top Five Messaging Apps for Tweens and Teens

The post gave parents a look at the popular apps kids are using to communicate with their friends (and possibly even strangers).

  1. WhatsApp Messenger
  2. Kik
  3. LINE
  4. SnapChat
  5. Viber

We heard a lot about SnapChat this year and most recently about a hack of third party SnapChat apps leading to hundreds of thousands of photos leaked online. We covered some highpoints about the media coined “Snappening.”

3. The Best Apps for Parents in 2014

Last year wasn’t all about apps for kids. Our MamaBear parents appreciated The Best Apps for Parents in 2014 throughout the year with helpful,  time-saving and fun apps that parents could enjoy.

  • iReward Chart
  • Evite
  • Cozi Family Organizer
  • Open Table
  • Fandango
  • Great Clips
  • Splice
  • Allrecipes Dinner Spinner
  • Fav Today
  • MamaBear

Looking for even more apps for parents? Stay tuned. MamaBear will be releasing the 2015 list of the best apps for moms in our next blog post.

4. Tips For Giving Your Child Their First Smartphone For the Holidays

Giving the responsibility of a cell phone to a child is a nerve-racking experience for most parents. So it’s no surprise that our post Tips For Giving Your Child Their First Smartphone For the Holidays was one of the year’s most popular.

The post explains how a cell phone for your child can be beneficial to both child and parent when the proper steps are followed. Read details of our recommended process to include:

  1. Setting Parental Controls
  2. Discussing Usage and Set Limits
  3. Reviewing Social Media Guidelines, Privacy, and Rules
  4. Creating Your Own Cell Phone Contract
  5. Installing an App that Connects and Protects

This article isn’t just a holiday read. It’s an excellent resource for parents who are about to give phones to their kids any time of the year.

5. Dangers of Talking to Strangers Online

Learning that nearly 60% of teens have received an email or instant message from a stranger online made the Dangers of Talking to Strangers Online an important topic for 2014.

Parents used the article to learn about a new list of chat apps and common chat slang that kids use to hide the meaning of their messages from their parents.

These are just a few of the family safety and digital parenting resources MamaBear created this year. We have way more where that came from!

Check out archived posts, look out for new ones, and download the MamaBear Family Safety App (available for both iPhones and Androids) so we can help make protecting and parenting your family easier in 2015.

 

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7 Smart Things You Must Know About Online Safety For Kids

The number of teens on Facebook has fallen by about 3 million in the last two years. Which social media sites are now trendy among our youth that you should know about? Here are seven smart things for parents to know about teen behavior on social media. | MamaBear App

The number of teens on Facebook has fallen by about 3 million in the last two years.  Which social media sites are now trendy among our youth that you should know about?  Here are seven smart things for parents to know about teen behavior on social media and online safety for kids.

1. The Risks of No Parental Supervision

It is estimated that about 80% of teens have the ability to hide their online activity from their parents worried about the natural consequence of access being taken away with unacceptable activity.  However, parenting experts argue that instead of punishment, a much more open and collaborative attitude will help share the risks and provide more opportunities to teach the basic safety skills of accessing the Internet.

2. Get Up to Date on the Trendy Sites

The number of incidents regarding cyberbullying and sexual harassment is on the increase. The likely reason is that photo sharing on Instagram, Snapchat, Vine and others has become so easy and popular.  The so-called ‘quick delete’ on Snapchat is not as secure as many people think. The Internet trolls and bullies have never had it so good.  For example, the Ask.fm site ( 80 million users), allows a teen to have a public profile page. It is not uncommon to find abusive questions there like “when are you going to commit suicide?”, for example! Aside from these, check your child’s devices for kik, whatsapp and any other app that doesn’t look familiar.  As always, open the dialogue and find out who they’re chatting with and why, which apps they use the most and then keep a close eye.

3. Vlogging is Cool

Some teens love blogging about their lives on video and this trend is known as ‘vlogging’. Obviously,YouTube and also Google Hangouts are the places to be. Ask to see any videos your children have  made and check to see that there is no personal information shared or inappropriate  content that could be reputation damaging or an invasion of privacy.  The good news is that there are lots of video tutorials from legitimate sources to help kids learn the right way to vlog.  Parents should not forget this fact.

Related: YouTube Parental Controls and What Every Parent Needs to Know

4. Cyberbullying Risks

Talk to your kids about the serious risks of cyberbullying and monitor it. It has been estimated by the Anti Bullying Alliance that about 30% of parents are not talking to their children about the risks of cyberbullying.  In addition to talking, use tools like MamaBear or be aware of the need to know risky content by filtering with keyword search and notifications. Many parents require their children to share their social media username and passwords.  We support and encourage this sharing of information.

5. Sexting

With the increase in the number of selfies and instant porn sites, the rise in sexting among teens is scary. Again, parents need to talk about the risks of leaving a ‘digital tattoo’.  The consequences can ruin your child’s reputation for years to come and subsequently affect getting into preferred colleges and potentially job acceptance.

Related: Taking Responsibility for Kids and Sexting

6. Texting is Trendy

Many parents worry that their teens are becoming digital zombies when they see them texting like crazy.  About a third of kids send less than 20 texts a day but roughly 20% are sending more than 200 texts daily!  There is good news though from the US Pew Research Center whose research shows that the texting teen is just as active socially in real life. Parents can insist that mealtimes are phone free in order to catch up and bond as a family. They can also keep an eye to make sure that their teens are not relying entirely on virtual friendships. If their best friend is no longer present, that could be a red flag.

7. It is not All Bad News

More good news comes from other research which indicates that teens are not necessarily less literate because of their frenetic digital participation. There are unlimited opportunities for kids to express themselves either in a video such as Becoming YouTube or in self publishing content. Some teens have claimed that they have become more socially adept and less timid because of social media.

Although our children face more risks with increased exposure and parents have more responsibility to teach and monitor safety, it’s a great part of their worlds today.  Acceptance with boundaries and accountability is our take.

Need help connecting with your kids and ensuring they are safe on social media sites? Try the MamaBear App for free and see how easy it is to connect with your family with just a few simple steps.

Download the free app for Android here.

Download the free app for iPhone here.

 

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The Dangers of Messaging Apps

dangers messaging app

In a recent MamaBear Blog post, we identified some of the top messaging apps. Most parents are aware of the prominence of social messaging apps and the way they have captivated tweens. While messaging apps can be harmless in most cases, it is important for parents to not only stay in the know about which apps are being used but also to monitor them as closely as possible to ensure their children’s safety.

The Dangers of Messaging Apps

While kids may simply be using messaging apps like Kik and SnapChat to share trivial messages and a range of goofy emoticons with their school friends, there are some hidden dangers associated with messaging app use that would strike fear into the heart of any parent.

According to this Fox 4 article, in one week the app Kik was linked to three serious crimes involving teen victims in Southwest Florida. The apps are being used by predators to prey on young victims as well as by kids engaging in sexting and cyberbullying.

See Also: Taking Responsibility for Kids and Sexting

Designed for Young Adults, Usurped by Tweens

Parents should take note. Most kids who have smartphones use these apps on a daily basis and throughout the day and night. Originally designed for much older youths, messaging and social media apps have been usurped by young kids who lack the maturity to understand how much damage they can do.

See this article for an interesting perspective on what happens when apps designed for more mature college students fall into the hands of tweens:

See Also: Yik Yak App Makers Do the Right Thing

More alarming is the way different social apps are being used together by young kids in dangerous ways. For example, one blogger describes how the photo sharing social network Instagram and the messaging app Kik were used together to allow a pedophile to target a young teenager.

Safety Measures

What can parents do?

First, talk to your kids. Without taking too prying of a tone, ask them questions about the apps they use most. Try to make the questions positive, rather than negative, in order to get a foot in the door with kids reluctant to share. What are their favorite messaging apps? Who do they like to talk to? Have they made any new friends? Asking questions but keeping the dialog light and conversational can build trust and help kids to be more open to sharing with their parents.

Second, install a family safety app like MamaBear on all family members’ phones so that you can monitor your kids’ behavior on social media like Instagram and Twitter. This way you will know who they are making friends with and be able to keep tabs on any troublesome behaviors.

Third, remind your children to take their own safety seriously. They should be aware of the kinds of things that really do happen with messaging apps and the types of predators who lurk behind deceiving screen names and profile images. It is important for the whole family – parents and children alike – to stay in the know about what these apps should be used for and what can make them go terribly, terribly wrong.

 

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Top Five Messaging Apps Used by Teens that Parents Should Know About

TOP MESSAGING APPS

These days, it seems that SMS is quickly becoming “so 2013.” Once a mainstay of mobile communication for people of all ages – especially among tweens and teens — SMS or Short Message Service (AKA texting) is becoming secondary to social messaging apps that can be used to text extensively for free, rather than by fee.

According to one article, this year it is projected there will be 21 billion text messages sent as compared to almost 50 billion app-based messages.

Kids in particular are loving messaging apps, and an increasing number of software developers are catering to the upsurge in popularity of apps designed to allow people to message without texting fees.

Below are the top 5 messaging apps most popular with youth around the world that parents should be aware of and understand.

See Also: MamaBear Cell Phone Contract for Kids

  1. WhatsApp – WhatsApp Messenger, often referred to as the leader of the messaging apps, is used by millions of people worldwide. The Android app allows users to send and receive messages, pictures, audio notes and video messages. Group chat is also available. The first year is free, with a 99 cent annual charge every year after that. WhatsApp works with a user’s phone number, just like SMS, and integrates with an existing phone address book. You can also use the app to share location, exchange contacts, broadcast messages to contacts and more.  Facebook agreed to acquire WhatsApp for $16 billion.
  2. Kik – Kik is another smartphone messenger app. Unlike WhatsApp, Kik requires users to create and log in with a username, as opposed to using a phone number as an identity. According to Kik, this allows users to be “in complete control of who you talk to.” Kik touts itself as being “like a real conversation, where you know when your messages are delivered and read, and when the other person is typing back. This makes your conversations come to life.”
  3. LINE –Like other messaging apps, there are no limits to the number of messages that can be sent using the LINE app available for multiple operating systems. LINE also allows users to make free voice calls and  messages anywhere, anytime. The app also allows users to make video calls.  With LINE, users can send messages with icons, photos and location information. The app also includes a timeline feature.
  4. SnapChat – SnapChat is another popular messaging app for Android that allows users to share messages that include photos or videos (with a caption option), group chat and more. The app was designed to make messages brief and fleeting: users view it, laugh, and then the snap disappears from the screen – unless they take a screenshot! Another unique feature of this app is Snapchat Story, “a living narrative where each Snap lives for 24 hours until it disappears, making room for the new.”
  5. Viber- Viber allows people around the world to text, call and send photo and video messages with an Android, iOS, Windows devices and more for free. Viber Out can be used to make calls to non-Viber mobile and landline numbers at low rates. Like WhatsApp, on Viber, your phone number is your ID and the app syncs with a phone’s contact list. In addition to basic messaging services, Viber allows groups with up to 100 participants.

As tech trends shift with the winds, it’s crucial for parents to keep tabs on which apps their kids are using. Ask your kids if they are using messaging apps, and if so, which ones they like best. Be aware of how they are using these apps and as always, monitor. Keep an open line of dialog so you can make sure your kids are using messaging apps (and any apps on their mobile devices) safely.

photo credit: Summer Skyes 11 via photopin cc