Is Spyware Software the Answer to Keeping Your Kids Safe On Their Phones?

There's an App for That...

<div>We all like to think that we&&num;8217&semi;ve safeguarded our kids against maleficent forces in the world&period; But do we really know what they&&num;8217&semi;re up to on their phones&quest; The ever changing world of mobile technology has made it so that you see more of the back of your kids phones than their actual faces&period; Their entire lives are poured into those devices&period; They surf Instagram&comma; Youtube&comma; chat it up with their friends and play tons and tons of video games all on a single handy device&period; What are some of the dangers of leaving your kids unattended on their phones&quest; Do you think they may be talking to the wrong people&quest; Or&comma; could something that looks innocent&comma; like using a messaging app with their friends&comma; playing a mobile game&comma; adding youtube videos&comma; or perusing social media&comma; actually have hidden dangers&quest; We&&num;8217&semi;ll go through a few dangers we could think of&comma; while using common apps on a phone&comma; and then talk about possible solutions to keep your kids safe on their mobiles&period;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<h3>Messaging Apps<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;144417" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-144417" style&equals;"width&colon; 466px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-144417" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;24150801&sol;snapchat-is-bad-mkay-meme&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Snapchat is dangerous for kids" width&equals;"466" height&equals;"299" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-144417" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Snapchat makes it way too easy for your kids to get up to no good&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-144416" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;d37x086vserhlm&period;cloudfront&period;net&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;24150449&sol;snap-chat-is-the-devil-no-really&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"618" height&equals;"410" &sol;>Messaging apps like Whatsapp&comma; Kik and Snapchat have made it super easy for your kids to keep in touch with their friends from school&comma; sports clubs&comma; or even online games&period; It also opens up the door for them to chat with bad and unsavory characters&comma; in other words&comma; people much older than them&period; Snapchat for instance has a ridiculous feature where images and videos automatically erase themselves&period; Many other apps like Whisper and Blendr&comma; have anonymous messaging&comma; and offer users the ability to chat with strangers&comma; while making self-destructing messages&comma; photos&comma; and videos key selling features&period; These apps are breeding grounds for possible abuse&sol;bullying by other kids or malicious adults and can be dangerous for your kids&period; They also destroy any evidence of said abuses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Online Gaming<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;144419" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-144419" style&equals;"width&colon; 620px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-144419" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;24153113&sol;pubg-mobile-and-its-dangers-bagogames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"PUBG Mobile can open kids up to bullying and abuse" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-144419" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">PUBG Mobile is fun but it can open up a whole can of worms&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Games like Fortnite and PUBG are revolutionizing the world of gaming for adults and kids abound&period; Most major franchises or game titles have a mobile component &lpar;e&period;g&period; Final Fantasy or Mortal Kombat have all made their way to mobile&rpar;&period; FIFA allows kids to track their players stats through the FIFA app&comma; PUBG mobile is a full-on battle royal gaming experience right in the palm of your hands&period; With this new accessibility&comma; comes new risks&comma; and a host of new questions all parents should be asking&period; Who are your kids playing with online&quest; Are they playing with kids their age&quest; Console systems like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One make it really easy for your kids to &&num;8220&semi;friend people&&num;8221&semi; they&&num;8217&semi;ve met online in games &lpar;so they might team up later on another match&rpar;&period; Multiplayer mobile games are no different&period; It might be important to find who exactly your kids are making friends with and playing with online&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Youtube<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Youtube has made it really easy for your kids to share their gameplay&comma; music videos&comma; or sports mashups that they made themselves on their iphones or android devices&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an outlet for them to express themselves&comma; and maybe even get noticed&period; Singers like Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes were noticed and signed after releasing videos on Youtube and Vine&period; While most kids are not going to be the next American &lpar;or Canadian&rpar; superstar&comma; Youtube is still an important way for them to become creators&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also a great way for them to access new music&comma; game and movie trailers&comma; and soak up culture and information&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;144421" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-144421" style&equals;"width&colon; 796px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-144421" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;24153946&sol;youtube-culture-comments-and-recommendations-can-be-toxic-bagogames-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Youtube culture&comma; comment sections&comma; and recommendations can be toxic&period;&period;&period;&period;" width&equals;"796" height&equals;"417" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-144421" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Youtube culture&comma; comment sections&comma; and recommendations can be toxic&&num;8230&semi;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Posting their own content however can open them up to bullying&comma; as comment sections aren&&num;8217&semi;t exactly known for being nice&period; A lot of people are downright nasty and trollish&comma; telling people their content is awful&comma; or worse that they&&num;8217&semi;re content is stupid or dumb&period; Another major issue with Youtube is that they&&num;8217&semi;re algorithm will sometimes suggest content to kids that isn&&num;8217&semi;t wholly appropriate&period; Youtube is actually embroiled in a scandal right now about how even on Youtube kids the algorithm was showing children violent and suggestive content&period; Not to mention the chance your eight year old might become a flat earther or anti-vaxxer because Youtube told him or her so&period; Simply put&comma; it might be a good idea to know what your kids are posting on Youtube and what they&&num;8217&semi;re watching&period; Most of the time it&&num;8217&semi;ll probably be music &lpar;rap and what not&rpar; or bad humor videos &lpar;Jake Paul is just terrible&rpar;&comma; but you never know till you ask&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Social Media<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;144422" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-144422" style&equals;"width&colon; 602px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;" wp-image-144422" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;24154823&sol;Social-media-and-cyber-bullying-bagogames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"602" height&equals;"276" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-144422" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Social media bullies can hide behind a screen&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Social media sites like Instagram and facebook have made it so we can all stay connected with each other around the clock&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s no different for your kids&period; Most of the time your kids are probably just posting about what they ate&comma; or who they hung out with&comma; but putting personal information out like that can put your kids in serious danger&period; Do strangers really need to know where Paulina went to eat on Monday&quest; Do rando followers need to know she has swim practice at the YMCA&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s information like that that parents need to look out for&period; Monitor your kids pages&period; That goes the same for who they&&num;8217&semi;re following&comma; and who might be following them&period; Does your 13 year old son or daughter really need to be followed by a bunch of adults&quest; Maybe not&period; Like with Youtube&comma; social media can open your kids up to abuse and bullying&period; A lot of kids have been made fun of&comma; or had sensitive images posted about them on social media accounts&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s really important to check your kids profiles every day and see what other people &lpar;maybe even friends of theirs&rpar; are saying about them in the comments sections&period; The more you know&comma; the better&period; Stopbullying&period;gov has a great resource for how to keep your kids safe on social media&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Solution &num;1&colon; There&&num;8217&semi;s an app for that<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;144413" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-144413" style&equals;"width&colon; 620px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-144413 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;24144914&sol;spyware-apps-to-keep-your-kids-safe-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"276" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-144413" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Spyware apps can go a long way to safeguard your kids on their mobile phones&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>While you might think it&&num;8217&semi;s a little overboard to consider installing spyware apps on your kids phones&comma; with all the dangers out there&comma; it may not be such a bad idea&period; We live in a tech dominated world&comma; where there is literally an app for everything&period; Why not an app to peak in what your kids are doing&quest; Or&comma; to monitor who they&&num;8217&semi;re messaging&comma; calling&comma; or emailing&quest; Spyware apps can be a great way to not only monitor activity&comma; but to restrict it as well&comma; by logging calls&comma; blocking disturbing websites&comma; limiting screen time&comma; restricting abusive applications&comma; scheduling use time&comma; and so on and so forth&period; If you are truly interested in a spyware app to help monitor and control your kids activity on their phones checkout <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cellphonetrackersoftware&period;com&sol;">https&colon;&sol;&sol;cellphonetrackersoftware&period;com<&sol;a>&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a great resource for spyware apps&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Solution &num;2&colon; Stay in the know&comma; talk to your kids<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;144415" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-144415" style&equals;"width&colon; 620px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-144415 " src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;07&sol;24145947&sol;kids-on-their-phones-zombies&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"413" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-144415" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Brains&excl;&excl; Brains&excl;&excl; Phones are turning kids into Zombies&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Okay&comma; so you&&num;8217&semi;re not really into putting the &&num;8220&semi;parent tracker&&num;8221&semi; on your kids phone&period; You wholly believe your kids are trustworthy and generally don&&num;8217&semi;t get into trouble &lpar;especially online&rpar;&period; We&&num;8217&semi;d say the best thing to do is have a talk&period; Set some guidelines&comma; like limiting the amount of time they can be on their phones&period; Does little Jimmy really need to play PUBG mobile for 10 hours&quest; Probably not&period; It would also be nice to see your kids faces every once in a while&comma; or to enjoy dinner with other human beings&comma; instead of a bunch of zombies staring at their phones&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ask your kids about what they&&num;8217&semi;re doing&comma; who they&&num;8217&semi;re playing with&comma; or what apps they&&num;8217&semi;re using on their phones&period; Just talking to them&comma; showing interest without judgement&comma; can go along way&period; But if you&&num;8217&semi;re like a lot of parents&comma; burned out&comma; tired as all hell from a hard days work&comma; you may not have the time to be a &&num;8220&semi;helicopter parent&&num;8221&semi;&period; In that case&comma; an all powerful knowing app may just be the way to go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Would you consider installing a spyware app on your kids phones to monitor what they&&num;8217&semi;re doing or even limit their access&quest; If not&comma; tell us why you&&num;8217&semi;re against it&period; Let us know in the comment section below&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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