Is Yubo made by Snapchat and intended for children

Being a parent, you’d like to know what your child is doing online. Social apps are abounding in the market, making it very hard to know which of them are safe for children. Is Yubo made by Snapchat? When parents discover their child on the Yubo app, they ask themselves a question: is it safe? They are both youthful, interactive — and so confusing in the same way. It’s worth noting, however, that Yubo isn’t Snapchat. There’s this misconception that arises because Yubo is very much similar to social media like Snapchat.

Parents who need to protect their kids online from the potential risks of Yubo and Snapchat should have a good understanding of where they differ and where they are similar. In this article, we explore the origins of Yubo, what it’s comparable to on Snapchat, and if it’s a good space for young users. We also discuss how parents can secure and supervise their kids’ interactions on Yubo and similar social apps.

Is Yubo made by Snapchat?

First, let’s answer the question, is Yubo made by Snapchat? Although popular with teens, Yubo isn’t connected to the folks who created Snapchat. Founded in 2015, Yubo is an independent social networking app by a French company called Twelve APP. The purpose is to offer a place to create new friends chat in live streams, and attend communities online. Its target audience is 13 to 25-year-olds, and it aims to encourage social interaction by live video and chat functions.

It’s not surprising that many people confuse Snapchat and Yubo with the latter being so similar to the former. This is both in terms of the demographic they appeal to and the range of features they utilize. But they’re different apps made by different companies. Snapchat is Snapchat’s service, developed by Snap Inc. That’s famous for disappearing messages and multimedia content sharing. While Yubo focuses on live video interactions and rather belongs to the category of social networking tools. A perceived Snapchat and Yubo connection is that both cater to young audiences.

How is Yubo similar to Snapchat?

Yubo and Snapchat are separate platforms, but it’s not hard to see why many parents might try to form a Yubo and Snapchat connection. The features that they offer both appeal to younger audiences, and allow for real-time interaction. Social connections through the Yubo app features are similar enough to Snapchat to bear some resemblance.

Here are some key similarities between Yubo and Snapchat that are likely to confuse parents:

• Live interaction: The two platforms feature immediate, real-time communication between users. It allows chatting using messages and videos that aren’t visible once someone has seen them in real time. So there’s an ongoing dialogue happening. In contrast, Yubo has shifted focus to live-stream video conversations. Here users can either join or host video chat rooms containing said live video chats with friends, friends of friends, or even friends of friends of friends.
• Visual-based communication: They’re known for its snap features allowing users to send quick photos and videos that disappear. Just as Yubo encourages users to broadcast themselves via live video chats and pictures. So, visual interaction over text content is a focus of Yubo.
• Building social circles: The two platforms let you connect with others and network. Both Snapchat and Yubo use a few tricks, including offering ways to add friends. These can be by usernames or phone contact.

These appeals, coupled with the features that these apps offer, make them attractive apps to teens. This is especially true for teens who want to meet new people, in a realm that’s casual and interesting. Yubo shares a lot with Snapchat, but there are other aspects that make it different than Snapchat. So, how parents should think about safety on Yubo may be unique to that.

How is Yubo different from Snapchat?

Let’s compare Yubo vs Snapchat and find out why the two apps should not be treated equally. Both appeal to younger generations, but their fundamental purposes and the manner they act on users, do so differently.

Here’s how Yubo stands out from Snapchat:

• Live-streaming focus: Snapchat allows real-time chat and video messaging. While Yubo does so a step further by focusing its platform around live streaming. Users can participate in live video chat rooms in groups. One aspect of Yubo that makes it more par with a group video chat tool, than a Snapchat type of private messaging app.

• Public versus private interactions: Usually, Snapchat’s communication is between one-to-one or among smaller, more private groups. The majority of snaps and messages were sent by people already added. And this is one of the foundational pieces of Snapchat’s design (for example, disappearing messages). But Yubo also lets users interact with people they don’t know, films sitting on their couch watching other live strangers.

• User profiles and discovery: Users can choose to add friends based on mutual contacts. Similarly, they can search for specific usernames on Snapchat. But you’re never being encouraged to meet someone new. Still, it’s the other way around with Yubo: it encourages people to find new people and connect with them using features such as ‘swiping’ (like we do on dating apps like Tinder) to see who’s around. This makes users, especially the kids, vulnerable to a wider audience, in particular, potential strangers.

The risks on Yubo could be greater on privacy and safety, precisely because of the differences, and these could be much more so than on Snapchat. This distinction is very important for parents when assessing if Yubo is appropriate for their child or not.

Is the Yubo app safe for kids?

Anyone with children knows one of the most pressing questions they have: Is Yubo safe for my child? You still have to be 13 or older to follow the Yubo age limit. However, even if your child meets the age limit, there are significant safety concerns for parents to be worried about. Safety isn’t something Yubo takes lightly, having some protections in place, but the fact that the app is open and live kind of negates any attempts at security a parent may have spent time thinking about.

Key safety concerns with Yubo include:

• Inappropriate content: The main reason for the existence of getting rid of Yubo is that most of its features are focused on live streaming. So therefore the platform relies on the users to monitor their behavior too. Unfortunately, this also means that Yubo is unable to kick out bad content being live-streamed. You get moderators and there’s the ability to report if someone does something inappropriate. This includes harmful stuff like obscene pics that can still get past the cracks.
• Interaction with strangers: Unlike Snapchat, which restricts sharing mainly to buddies and connected contacts, Yubo encourages users to communicate with strangers. This exposes children and teens to exposure to inappropriate behaviors, cyberbullying, or grooming by predators.
• Age verification: Yubo says it enforces an age limit. Still, younger users can easily lie about their age when they sign up. Underage users now have a safe pass to use this platform without some careful monitoring, thereby putting themselves in danger.
• Location sharing: Connection with other users across the globe raises privacy risks. Kids face the risk of predators taking advantage of Apps’ encouragement of sharing geographic data. However, users can still turn off location services.

These are reasons why parents need to take into account whether Yubo is a safe environment for their children to be, even if the kids are above the age limit.

Risks and concerns about social apps like Yubo

The privacy and safety issues are of concern to many parents, and indeed they are. Social media apps like Yubo that focus on the capacity to simply engage with strangers can introduce children to a lot of bad situations.

Some common risks associated with social apps like Yubo include:

• Exposure to harmful behavior: Live streaming apps allow users to live stream and upload unfiltered content. This ends up being inappropriate language, bullying, and explicit material. Such things pose a very real risk to young users who may not be able to handle such situations.
• Catfishing and predatory behavior: The Yubo app can be attracted by malicious intentions people. They get teenagers to meet up with them. Then they can groom or exploit teenagers, sometimes posing as teenagers and sometimes using fake profiles.
• Cyberbullying: Yubo’s open nature of the live streaming feature presents itself as an opportunity for cyberbullying. It can happen in real time and with little oversight. And because those users who are younger may be too young to cope with online harassment, this causes psychological harm.
• Privacy violations: Users are open to privacy breaches because the user has to share his location and the collection of personal data. If teens aren’t aware of such risks, they might overshare their personal information and become easy prey for exploitation.

Yubo has definitely put the safety part in place. This provides the capability to report inappropriate behavior and moderation. Still, there’s no way of dealing with such risks completely. Parents should keep an eye out and continue to talk with their kids about the dangers of talking with strangers online.

How FlashGet Kids can help protect your kids on social apps?

How do parents protect their kids on platforms such as Yubo? And the answer is in those monitoring tools like FlashGet Kids that will help you a lot. This parental control software will help you to manage and monitor what your child does over the internet. So, you can technically regulate what they can see over the internet.

Here’s how FlashGet Kids can help:

• App monitoring: Parents can see with FlashGet Kids what apps their kids are using, including Yubo. That way you can keep track of how much time they are spending in these apps and if you need to do something about it.
• Screen time and app time limits: You can regulate your child’s digital behavior by setting up time limits for social apps. Moreover, you can outright block certain apps from their phone.
• Geolocation tracking: Additionally, parents can use FlashGet Kids’ geolocation tracking to always know where a child is. This feature informs you of any time a child is going somewhere he is not supposed to go.
• Social media monitoring: The software tracks the child’s social interaction, for you to see who they are chatting with as well as suspicious behavior. For example, you can alert yourself to particular keywords, or signs of suspicious behavior that might involve predatory behavior or cyberbullying.

Using a tool like FlashGet Kids means that parents can always catch up and keep children safe from the ‘potential’ dangers of the social media app Yubo. Proactively, it’s a way to make sure your kids reap the benefits of social interaction online without exposing them to the risks.

Conclusion

Parenting in the digital world doesn’t come easy. There are just so many social media apps aimed at kids that it’s hard to know which are safe and which are not. A common question that you will come across in this era is, “Is Yubo made by Snapchat?” So, the similarities and differences between the two platforms are important to understand to make wise choices about your child’s online safety.

What makes Yubo so dangerous is that they focus on live streaming with strangers. But despite the Yubo app’s age limit, it doesn’t mean the app itself is safe for teens. Parents should keep an eye out for dangerous risks such as exposure to inappropriate content and interaction with strangers.

Thankfully, you can also regulate these risks by using some robust parental control tools like FlashGet Kids. With some monitoring, filtering, and location tracking, you can make sure your child has a fun time online and safely.

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