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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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MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban

MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban | MamaBear App

Social media apps that offer anonymous profiles are becoming popular with preteens and teens. It may seem like online anonymity would offer protection and increased safety for users, but it does quite the opposite.

Apps that allow users to interact anonymously create a dangerous online arena where aggressive users can bully and harass without repercussion and casual users can accidentally connect with dangerous strangers.

The following apps have received negative publicity for their inability to moderate cyber-bullying, and many parents are calling for them to revisit their harassment policies and systems. But it seems that the companies are not reacting to the potential dangers quick enough.

Foutune.com tested Secret’s anti-bullying system, and it failed. The site was unable to identify and remove the inappropriate content they posted, even after other users added more negative and harassing comments.

Since Secret and other similar platforms don’t include systems that can appropriately protect your child from dangerous users and harassment, MamaBear recommends not allowing the following social media apps be installed on your child’s phone.

MamaBear’s List of Apps Parents Should Ban

Yik Yak: This app shows a feed of updates that people in the surrounding geographic area have posted. Users can comment on posts or upvote them to raise them to the top of the list. Although the app is for users 17 and over, younger kids regularly create accounts. They use the platform like a gossip bulletin board and write mean things that may get upvoted to the top of the list and be difficult to take down.

Ask.fm: Users post questions and answers on other users’ questions. The site offers options to share posts on Facebook. Users often hide behind the site’s anonymity and post harassing text and photo responses to questions, or post mean questions that call out people by name.

Tinder: It shows a stream of photos of users that are located with a certain mile radius. Users say yes or no to each photo, indicating if they would like to engage with the person. If both users say yes, the app allows them to connect. Younger users should not create accounts as Tinder is intended for an audience 17 and over and is often used by adults as a “hook-up” app.

Whisper: The app allows users to anonymously share text and photos. It shows which users are nearby and allows private communicate which creates safety issues for young users who many unintentionally connect with dangerous or older users. Whisper is intended for users 12 and over, and iTunes rates it for the same age group due to “Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor, Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity, Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References, and Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”

Related: The Dangers of Messaging Apps

Secret: Users can post “secrets” which are shared with friends and comment on other users’ secrets. If a friend “likes” a secret, it is then shared with their list of friends. Users can’t see who shares secrets or posts comments. Many users have complained the site does not stop anonymous users from sending harassing and bullying comments.

These apps are not set up to protect young users, and they do not have the proper systems to flag inappropriate use or moderate comments. They enable bullying and have created a dangerous social space that your kids should avoid.

Talk to your kids about acceptable social apps and actions, and ban these apps. Then protect them by connecting with their social media accounts through MamaBear Family Safety app – currently monitoring Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The free app, available for both Andriods and iPhones, makes it easy to review how you child is interacting on social media.

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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.