Snapchat

Have you heard your tween or teen talk about Snapchat? Snapchat is a free and increasing in popularity iPhone app. Snapchat allows users to take photos on their iPhone then send them to another smartphone and determine how long the photo can be seen by the receiver, for up to 10 seconds. If the receiver tries to use another feature on the iPhone to capture the photo on the screen, the sender is notified.

Apple has design the app for 12 years and older and doesn’t mention anything about sexting but has a warning of “mild sexual content or nudity.” Another point to point out is the developers of the app stated it keeps photos on its server but claims to delete them quickly, however there is no guaranteed and users need to use this app at their own risk.

The question to ask yourself, will this new app encourage more sexting?  According to recent research coming out on sexting by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, three percent of teenagers admit to sending sexually explicit content. Will apps like Snapchat help increase this percentage over the years?  Remember as a parent if you don’t want your teen to have the app, you can block application downloads with My Mobile Watchdog

Cyber-bullying Trend in Virginia

In Roanoke County in Virginia, bullying is not going anywhere, unfortunately.  The Roanoke County school district does a risk assessment in high schools every two years and found that 50 percent of students have been bullied and 53 percent have witnessed bullying. These percentages have been consistent for the last 10 years. However when they researched into cyber-bullying, they found a captivating trend, that in 2008 30 percent of students stated they had been cyber-bullied and two years later the surveyed showed 32 percent had been cyber-bullied.

These results show cyber-bullying is on an upward trend. The teenagers stated that cyber-bullying is worse than face-to face bullying because with a push of a button on a cell phone it is posted on a social networking site, so within 15 minutes or less the whole school knows about it.

The upside to the bullying is the school district is looking into ways to help the school counsels combat the cyber-bullying problem.

Instagram

If your tween hasn’t asked for an Instagram account yet, then be prepared for the request.  Instagram was launched in October 2010 and has grown steadily in popularity with 30 million accounts as of April 2012. Instagram is a free photo sharing application where users can take a photo, apply a digital filter to it to change how it looks and feels, post it to Instagram and share it immediately  on a variety of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Foursquare.   It is a fast and fun way to share photos from your iPhone, and Android smartphones. 

Instagram itself is a photo sharing social networking site. All photos are public and can be viewed by anyone using Instagram or on their website. There is an option to make your account private so only your followers can see your photos.  Instagram has a strict age requirement of at least 13 years old.  Another important feature on Instagram is they turn off the geotagging on photos. But you need to be careful when you upload a photo because this feature can easily be turned back on and can be a huge risk for your privacy.

Protecting Your Family and Cell Phone

With so many new cell phones and applications in the marketplace today, it is best to educate yourself and understand what all the new technology brings in functionality and accessibility to help keep yourself and family safe. Here are some ways to protect your family by being aware of what is lurking in the cell phone world: 

Turn off your location device on your cell phone. Be aware when you download a new application to check your location device and make sure it is still turned off.  Sometimes it will automatically turn on when you download new apps or update or upgrade your cell phone.

Make sure you don’t let your children download new apps without you watching. It is best to ask yourself; why is this app free, what type of data can the app access, why does it have advertisements, and can I tell what type of information the app can access.

Apps you download on your phone may share, collect and store information about you such as places you visit, where you are, contact lists, who you call and even data stored on your phone.

Do not respond back to spam because that could result in even more texts. It is best to report it to your wireless provider by texting 7726 (SPAM) on your keypad. Your wireless provider will respond back asking for the number the spam came from. You need to send them the number to complete the complaint.

Don’t always trust Caller ID. A wrongdoer could spoof numbers on calls or text to make it look like it is from someone else or someone you know.

Put your cell phone number on the Do Not Call Registry to avoid the pesky automated calls or texts.  

Malware can cause the same corruptions to your cell phone as it can to your computer. Remember smartphones are just mini computers. You can infect your phone by downloading apps or clicking on a link from an email. It is always best to go to the source’s website to get the information you need.

If you think your phone is infected, back up the data and contact the manufacturer.