While the online world has made life more interconnected, it has also made parents more concerned about their kids’ safety and mental health. Social media, gaming, and chat room apps for teenagers are where children become victims of online dangers. According to a survey report, 43% of 8 to 13-year-old children are talking to strangers online.
Statistics like these are enough to keep parents up at night, worrying that it could have been their kid as well. If you’re also concerned about your teenager being active in an online chat room, don’t stop reading. In this article, we’ll be discussing the most dangerous chat room apps for children, and how to monitor them for your child’s safety.
Why are chat room apps popular for teens?
There are plenty of social media apps teens use every day, so why would they want to use online chat rooms?
The main reason chat room apps are popular among teenagers is the appeal of anonymity that comes with them. In online chat rooms, teenagers can express themselves freely without having to reveal their identities. Anonymous chat room apps give them a sense of freedom which is not the same as social media apps.
In addition, virtual chat room apps for teenagers offer them a space to explore different identities and escape real-life perceptions their peers might have about them. Curiosity, shyness, and a desire for online social interactions could also be the reasons chat room apps are famous among teens.
Are chat rooms safe for minors?
As much as minors enjoy participating in online chat rooms, these chat room apps are not entirely safe for them. Teens are not always the best decision-makers when it comes to sharing content online. Without proper parental monitoring, they can end up sharing a little too much with strangers.
Anonymous chat room apps offer little or no room for parental controls. That’s why these apps are often very risky to minors. Due to strange user interfaces and anonymity, nearly all chat room apps for teenagers have data privacy issues. Cybercriminals can easily access your child’s account info, messages, and media content such as photos and videos.
Lastly, these chat room platforms open gates for online grooming, abuse, and manipulation. Kids often fall victim because of a lack of information and awareness about such topics. So, chat rooms are not that safe for minors, teenagers, or even young adults.
8 dangerous chat room apps for teenagers
Let’s have a look at the 8 most dangerous chat room apps that teenagers use and how they can be risky and harmful for them:
1. Airtime
Airtime is a group messaging app that lets users interact with people from all corners of the world. Each member of the group has equal access to the messages and content that’s being shared in the group chats. So, anyone can talk to your kids and exchange photos or videos with them, despite their age or gender.
Such chat room apps for teenagers can make them vulnerable to unwanted attention from people who are not even the peers. Moreover, for reason of anonymity, there are greater chances of harassment and bullying as teens can gang up on one kid.
2. Discord
While it is primarily a communication platform for gamers, Discord has become quite popular among non-gamers as well for online conversations. Teens, nowadays are using Discord to engage and share content with their online friends as well as strangers. They can join different servers that contain multiple chat rooms and be a part of a larger group.
The biggest problem with Discord’s servers or groups is the unrestricted access to all kinds of content that the members of that group are sharing in the chat room. Children are often exposed to inappropriate and mature content from adults, as people of all ages are on Discord.
3. Whisper
As the name indicates, Whisper is an online chat room app where users can anonymously share their confessions and secrets with anyone. While the purpose of anonymity is to hide the confessor’s identity, it provides precisely the opportunity for unscrupulous people.
On Whisper, you can create an account without any verification, name, address, or even age. That’s one of the reasons it is a hub for pedophiles and child abusers who pretend to be younger than they actually are to befriend children. More than 1 million users on Whisper have listed themselves as 15-year-olds, just because the app allows it.
4. Kik
Kik is a mainstream messaging app that is incredibly popular among teenagers. Like many anonymous chat room apps for teenagers, Kik doesn’t ask you for lengthy signup details. Users can create an account with minimal real information about themselves and interact with others through their username.
The easy signup and messaging policies on Kik make it a favorite spot for child predators online. They seek out children and teenagers on this platform by lying about their age and identity and using that to their advantage. Kik also allows photo and video sharing among users, leading to more than 1100 cases of child abuse and molestation in the UK only.
5. Antiland
Antiland is marketed to teenagers as a completely anonymous chat messenger for meeting and talking to people from all over the world. This chat room app promotes freedom in making friends, dating, and expressing oneself. Due to the mature and adult content available on the Antiland app, it is rated 17+.
However, despite the age rating, a large majority of minors and teenagers much younger than 17 have registered on Antiland, along with young adults in their 20s. For parents, this could be a potential concern as your children could be exposed to content that’s not suitable for them, just because they are on this app.
6. Ask.fm
Ask.fm is an anonymous chat room app that is based on a question-answer theme. Users can sign up on Ask.fm and ask their peers or strangers all sorts of questions whether they’re related to their personal, school, or romantic life. The anonymity of this chat room app for teenagers makes it a hub for online harassment and cyberbullying, which can lead to suicide.
In 2013, a 12-year-old girl named Rebecca Sedwick from Florida, killed herself because she faced severe bullying from 2 girls on the Ask.fm app. There are many other similar instances of suicide as well that have been associated with this chat room app. It is undoubtedly one of the most popular chat room platforms for young suicides, with nine teen suicides reported so far.
7. GroupMe
GroupMe is one of the popular chat room apps for teenagers that allows users to send messages individually or in groups, without any limit or additional fees. The problem with this chat room app is that teenagers can become addicted to it and become distracted from their daily lives.
It provides an escape to teenagers from their daily dealings on social media and real life but the downside is that teens can get addicted to messaging on GroupMe. Moreover, many users at GroupMe have reported inappropriate and mature content, which the app claims to be free of. User safety and privacy is not being taken seriously.
8. KidzWorld
This chat room app, as you can get an idea from the name, is mainly designed for children as a safe digital space. The main idea behind KidzWorld is to provide a platform for kids to play games, write in forums, chat with other kids, and make new friends. While kids do make new friends sometimes, they can also end up with the wrong ones.
In addition to kids’ interaction with older strangers, KidzWorld also doesn’t censor profane and vulgar topics on its forums which defeats the purpose of a safe and friendly app for children. Many parents have also called the app to be toxic and a cesspool of drama, causing unrest for the kids.
How to monitor these popular chat apps?
In this fast-paced and modern digital world, it is natural for parents to worry about the safety of their kids, both online and offline. Here are three practical tips for all parents who are looking for a proper way to monitor their teen’s online activities without compromising their freedom:
The most efficient way to monitor your teen’s chat room apps is by employing reliable parental control software like FlashGet Kids. It is an all-in-one parental control solution that excels in keeping your child away from online harm.
With a live camera and one-way audio recorder, location tracking, app blocker, geofencing, and so many more amazing features, FlashGet Kids is your go-to solution for keeping your children safe and sound.
- Stay alert and communicate
It has become crucial for parents to stay connected to the latest trends in social media and emerging technologies, apps, and software. In this way, you will stay informed the pros and cons of those popular social media apps, gaming, or chat room websites your teens might have signed up for.
Then you can stop your kid from downloading or using certain apps that may have harmful impacts. Moreover, keep communication alive with your kids. If they know what terms like “online grooming” mean, they can recognize and avoid such behaviors.
- Adjust privacy settings
This may seem like an invasion of privacy but it’s not if you sit with your kids to choose the most secure privacy settings for their chat room apps. There are plenty of privacy settings that most users of chat room apps for teenagers don’t even know about. Some important privacy settings on chat apps include limiting who can contact your teen, and selecting which information could be visible to other people.
Final words
Now that you are aware of why teens find chat room apps so fascinating, which are the most dangerous for your kids, and how you can monitor them. It’s time to start planning. Teenagers love chat apps for their anonymity and freedom without realizing their potential downsides such as harassment, bullying, online grooming, and even suicide. Now FlashGet Kids can be a top-rated assistant to protect your child by effectively monitoring and restrictions.
FAQs
Are anonymous chat rooms safe?
No, anonymous chat rooms are not safe because anonymity attracts more predators and ill-minded people. If there is no identity and everything is anonymous, users can get hurt more easily due to online bullying, manipulation, and harassment.
How do I know what chat apps my kid is using?
There are many ways to know what chat apps your kid is using, such as:
- Use a parental control plan like FlashGet Kids to see what your kids are doing on their phones.
- Check their web and app history to see if there are any new apps.
- Simply ask your kid and check their devices.
Can someone track you from a chat room?
It depends on the app or platform you’re using for the chat room. Some chat room apps for teenagers have a location-sharing option that can be used to track you, using the IP address. Even the chat room apps that claim to be anonymous cannot guarantee complete anonymity.
How can I block or delete chat apps from my kid’s phone?
The ideal way to block or delete chat apps from your kid’s phone is by using a parental control solution or app. With parental control plans, you can not only delete certain apps from your kid’s phone but also permanently block them from being installed again without your permission.
