With billions of users worldwide, WhatsApp has become one of the most common ways of communication. It is used to send instant messages and the multimedia context which includes songs, pictures, links, maps, documents and some other files. It’s the most user friendly and highly used application for the data transfer from one smartphone to another. It is also popular among kids, which is a problem in itself as WhatsApp, just like Facebook, is a favourite platform for cyber bullies, online predators, and sex offenders who use it to exploit innocent kids for ill purposes. This is why, it is essential for parents to supervise their kids’ smartphone usage. Kids aren’t generally aware of the actions they perform using their device and might get themselves caught into some dangerous situation.Apart from the social media networks and the general internet content, the instant messaging application, led by WhatsApp, has some potential threats available. A rational approach is required to evade such threats, while when it comes to the kids; they definitely need some guidance and supervision to be away from such pacts.
Containment of Threats:
Threats could be anywhere over the application. The application uses the cell phone number to create the accounts and the numbers are generally open to the recipients. This is one of the foremost threats. Apart from that there are numerous other threats available that could be either way a lizard to splash or a horrible nightmare.
Importance of Supervision:
Kids can’t be left on their own to use the smartphone and especially the instant messaging applications, as it is not sure that who did them contact and what sort of stuff they receive from an anonymous body. Parents are required to be with their children digitally. They should provide them all necessary guidance in order to keep them protected and safe from all the hovering dangers.
It’s not sure that the person contacted is really someone known or is a street thug. The digital age has made a number of things easier for everyone. This “everyone” includes everyone; the right and the wrong. Being safe and keeping the loved ones safe in this horizon is direly important.
Threats:
As mentioned earlier that threats could be everywhere. Doesn’t matter what the article is, but the threats could be deep inside the roots of everything. All that differs is the intensity of damage they could do.
Instant Messages: That is not sure that every person that a child reaches using the instant message is a friend. That guy could be a con and might cause harm to the home via the leaks from the child, as children aren’t much sensible to justify that who they should tell each and every thing of their house.
Pictures: Stuff received from the friend is pretty much sure that it would be of the context or the regular discussion. But at times the friends as well as the anonymous acquaintance might send some stuff that is harmful in many ways, such as the explicit content. It may have many effects, such as the psychological and health issues can cause during the pubertal age.
Sounds: Teens are generally aggressive in nature. Any stuff of emotional context could bring aggressiveness on their minds. Content like the war speeches, the religious extreme or the political vigour could cause much emotional and mental damage.
Links: Generally anonymous numbers share some links. The adults are rational enough to justify whether the link shared is a good piece of work or is some sort of viral attack. But the kids aren’t able to properly pre – justify the purpose of the received link. Such has a couple of damage. Either the information contained over the smartphone is leaked via some hidden protocol to the odds which later on causes a massive damage to the home such as the robberies, or it could bring up some explicit site which is unfavourable for the kids.
Videos: Sharing videos on WhatsApp is very rife and it becomes a customary practice when the teens have joined various groups. As teens get connected with their peers, friends and other fellows, they would surely share videos and there is no restriction on what types of videos can be exchanged between the two groups. The content and messages conveyed through such videos can be harmful for the teens in a number of ways. Teens should be kept far away from the people to connect with who the parents deem unfit for their teens.
Groups: It takes just a click to create a group on WhatsApp and most of the social media users actively participate in groups but their natures differ. When your teen is on WhatsApp, it becomes to inevitable to educate him/her about the pros and cons of joining groups as there are members with varying backgrounds, natures and personalities. We have asked few teens how they find WhatsApp groups and almost all the responsible teens categorized them in useless category that only prompt you to waste time in meaningless chitchat. Thus in light of all the scenarios, parents should take immense care and save their teens from using social media like WhatsApp.
Supervising Tools:
If directly the smartphones of the kids are checked, it would cause some negative psychological impact. Although restricting them can do much of the psychological harm and more of it, it could take kids to rebellion states.
The best tool is that, which allows the parents to know about the activities of their children without even touching their smartphones. It’s not any magic or a teleport game, it’s a reality and this reality is called TheOneSpy. A spyware application, which is more than just being a spy app; it’s a parental control protocol.This remarkably powerful parental control app allows the parents to learn about all the activities of their children at their smartphones. What are they doing on WhatsApp, what they received or send, who contacted them or what was contained in the last link shared to them; could easily be known using TheOneSpy.
Author Bio:
Bella is tech geek and digital parenting expert. She mostly writes latest social media norms and mobile data protection. Currently she blogs at TheOneSpy – an app to spy mobile and protect cell phone OS (android, Blackberry, iPhone). Her latest article on The Cellphone Spyware Police don’t Want to Acknowledge got viral social media visibility.
