Online Safety: Is WhatsApp Safe for Your Kids?
Parents whose kids own a smartphone must know that sending and receiving text messages are an important part of your kid’s social life. Since communicating with their friends plays an integral part in your kid’s life, it is possible that they are using WhatsApp for daily communication. As a parent, you must have wondered who your kids talk to on the app and to kill that curiosity, you would have looked for ways to learn how to hack their WhatsApp account.
The reason such thoughts occur in your mind because you are still not sure whether or not your child is safe on the app and if WhatsApp is entirely safe for your child to use. In this post, we are going to throw some light and let you know how WhatsApp works and whether or not it is safe for your child to use this instant messaging app.
What’s WhatsApp All About?
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular instant messaging app that can be directly downloaded on your mobile devices from Apple Store or Google PlayStore for free. Using this instant messaging service, users can send and receive messages containing text, photos, videos, audios, etc.
Users can either have individual chats with someone or group chats with many people. They can also upload customizable statuses, letting their contacts know what they have been up to or whether they are available to chat with them.
Children and teens prefer using WhatsApp over other messaging services for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that this app comes for free and is not monetized at all. This means users will not see any ads while using the app.
If your child does not have unlimited texting on their mobile package, they wouldn’t have to worry because they can use WhatsApp to send unlimited messages to others for free. WhatsApp also makes it possible to send and receive photos, videos, and audio notes with one or many people.
Is WhatsApp Safe for Your Kids?
There is a unique security flaw found in WhatsApp. Unlike other instant messaging apps, WhatsApp does not require its users to set passwords on the app. This is not necessarily a major problem unless your kid does not lose his/her cell phone.
However, it does mean that when someone gets hands on your child’s cell phone, they may misuse the app by sending inappropriate messages to someone, making it look like they have been sent by your kid but they’re not.
Apart from this security flaw, WhatsApp is generally a safe app for kids to use. Having said that, the same app can also be used in many unsafe ways. Since WhatsApp does not put any age restrictions for using the app, children of any age can join the app by putting up a fake birth year while signing up for the app.
Moreover, there are no restrictions on the kind of content that can be shared on the platform, therefore, it becomes easier for anyone to use the app for sexting or sharing inappropriate material with others across the board.
The other most concerning thing about WhatsApp is that it lets users share their live location as well as contact information with other users. It also allows users to geotag their photos. Suppose if your child gets in touch with an online predator on the app and begin talking to them, the predator could get details of your child’s current location from the app.
Safety Tips for Using WhatsApp
Since WhatsApp does not require its users to set passwords, children can keep themselves safe on the app by putting up a lock on their cell phone so that no one can get hands on their phone and send messages to others on their behalf. Of course, parents should also know the password. WhatsApp monitoring tools can also be used to keep track of children’s WhatsApp conversations.
On the other hand, children should only set their sharing settings to their phone contacts so that strangers won’t be able to see their location or statuses. Children should be taught to only add people on their WhatsApp whom they know in real. They should also turn off the geotagging feature. Last but not least, children should know how to delete, block, and report a certain contact on the app.
