The KIK messenger controversy
Most often, parents are usually concerned about their children being exposed to inappropriate content over the Internet. When parental controls were developed, the uncertain thought of what your child would be doing online was finally put to rest. Once again, parents had control. That is why majority of the parents are so apprehensive about the use of KIK messenger. As an open-source and free application, most KIK users are easily prone to exploitation. Anyone can log on and have unwarranted videos and pictures. When used in the wrong way, the application may even be used for sexual abuse. Although KIK has adopted tools that screen for pornography distribution and abusive images, tech-savvy individuals could also somehow maneuver and find ways to use the application maliciously. Although KIK allows user to block unwanted persons, the privacy settings limits is completely up to the child. The application does not come with any parental control whatsoever. KIK has been referred to as a dangerous combination of what social media dangers are made up of. The fact that there is freely shared information poses danger to growing children who may face salutation from malicious Internet users. Most children use social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter freely, however, there are parental Apps which work as phone trackers to block user access on unwarranted sites. KIK is one of the few that allows full access. While safety entirely depends on your child’s level of maturity, it still is not safe enough especially due to the fact that the App is not only entirely meant for children. Therefore, it is hard to know who the sexual pervert that we want to protect our children from really is. The fact that KIK is private and unregulated goes against everything that parental control stands for. Even if users can be blocked, there is no instance of account auditing. Also, the application does not offer any age specification when signing up. Because the users profile is public, it is virtually impossible to control a following. What most children may consider ‘cool’ is usually detrimental to their well-being. KIK messenger parental concerns Exposure to cyber bullies and trolls Sexual perversion Violence amongst the users Inappropriate exposure to images Unknown interaction Some users often use their full names while signing up for the application. This could promote cases of impersonation and identity theft. Although KIK’s terms of use does not promote unwarranted activities, some users are able to carry out ill- hall through networking features. The KIK community blog makes most users vulnerable to harm. Granted, KIK has some great to use features but the privacy concerns make it wanting. The application should only be used by teenagers who can discern activities within a social networking environment overall, they still need some guidance and safety and sometimes even mobile tracking if they are going to use it. We highly recommend our Spy app for the feature of tracking KIK - as parental control. Our Spy app for mobile phone can record from KIK all messages, incoming or outgoing. This phone monitoring app records the sent or received messages without ROOT access. Try now for free our Phone tracker app, free download and free GPS tracker. Our free to download app is fully compatible with about 99.9% of all Android phones, it is an Android spy surveillance app.