PYB Parent Forum Information (15 min. introduction)

• Introduce yourself and your role at the Police Youth Bureau.  Explain that the schools are looking to curb the issues that are coming from kids getting into trouble legally, physically and emotionally due to misuse of social media.
• More kids are using devices for social media and at a younger age than before.
• Appropriate use is often times not discussed with kids.
• Kids are getting into more trouble in the past few years for inappropriate use of devices and social media (bullying, drama, sexual related citations, drug use and selling drugs).
•  Today we are prepared to give you an idea of risky apps that they are using, give you resources on how to monitor, tell you how kids hide things from you, explain how children are getting into trouble with social media and give you advice on how to speak with your children about the expectations that you have about the things that they do online to prevent them from being harmed or in legal trouble.
• When LE is dealing with information that is sexually explicit or dealing with partial or nude photographs of minors in is considered child pornography which could lead to felony level citations (explain seriousness of a felony).
• There are many misconceptions about what you as a parent can and cannot do when it comes to your child’s devices.
• You can and should check your child’s devices.  You can and should have conversations about what is appropriate and inappropriate use of devices.  You should know what types of apps your child has on their devices and what they use the apps for.  You should set firm boundaries about what your child shares publically.  You should know your child’s passwords.  You should monitor all devices that your children have access to.  
• Parents are blindsided every day once LE is involved in a case where devices are seized and looked into.  They often times will make comments that they never expected that their children were engaging in the types of things that are found by LE.
• Know that children today often times have no clue that they things they are doing on social media are criminal or even wrong.  Many kids today feel that it is common to be asked for nudes and state that it is just a normal part of adolescence.  Children share their whole lives on social media and will cover it up to keep it from you.
• School resource officers have had to get more training in the past couple of years in order to learn how to handle social media cases and have had to spend massive amounts of time on looking into devices that children are using inappropriately.
• Technology is ever-changing and is here to stay.  It is not going away!  
• You as a parent are the most crucial piece to ensure that your children know how to use devices and social media appropriately!

Risky Apps that are Commonly Used

• Instagram
  • Intended for children 13 or older.  However, they will lie and say they are old enough when entering app.
  • Even if your child uses privacy settings their profile is public (they need to understand that they need to be careful with their profile information).
  • Instagram users can get a map of where the photos are taken (this can be turned off and should be).
• Kik
  • Intented for children 13 or older.
  • The term “sext buddy” is being replaced with “Kik buddy”.
  • No parental controls=easy for sexual predators to contact.
  • Anonymous, no profile.
• Omegle
  • Marketed as “talk with strangers”.
  • Can have immediate video connection with strangers.
  • Can connect with Facebook.
• Snapchat
  • 13 years or older.
  • Used to sext because youth feel it is safe.
  • Receivers can take a screenshot and share it with others.
  • Images are often posted on “revenge porn sites” called “snap porn”.
  • Can reveal a user’s location (can turn this off with “ghost mode” in settings).
  • Should set privacy settings to “my friends”.
• Whisper
  • “Anonymous confession app”
  • Displays where posts are coming from.
  • Users can send you a private message.
  • Can search for users posting within a mile of your location.
  • Youth share personal vulnerabilities like, “I am bullied at school for being fat” and “I’m so lonely”.
  • Used by sexual predators to locate youth & est. relationships.
• Down
  • Formerly called “Bang with Friends”.
  • Can indicate if friends are someone you are “down” with to “hook up for sex”.
  • Pressures children to engage in sexual behaviors.
  • If children are not classified as “down”, can lead to anxiety and poor self-esteem leading them to do things they normally would not do to become “down”.
• Sarahah
  • Anonymous feedback app (receive from friends and strangers).
  • Rated for 17 years and older.
  • Can connect with Snapchat.
  • Can send anonymous messages to contacts in their phone or search for users & send messages to people they do not know.
  • Can share your profile on any social platform for people to give you feedback on.
  • Youth are using this app to cyberbully others.
  • Can opt out to keep name and profile picture from appearing in a search.
• Lock Photo’s Safe Calculator
  • Looks like calculator app.
  • Used to hide pictures.
  • Can set a decoy password to give to parents that shows appropriate pictures but have a separate password to hide others from parents that are not allowed or inappropriate.
• Audio Manager
  • Appears to be manage music files.
  • Hide other apps, pictures, videos and messages.
  • Press and hold icon to reveal hidden content.
• Vaulty
  • Stores videos and pictures from spying parents.
  • Will snap a picture of the person who tries to access the “vault” with the wrong password.
  • If your child has this app-they are purposely trying to hide things from you!
• Tinder
  • Dating and hook up app.
  • Allows you to rate profiles and locate “hook ups” via GPS tracking.
  • Easy for adults to find minors.
  • Easy to use to cyberbully when individuals are targeted by groups to make their rating go down.
• Blendr
  • Message, exchange photos and videos & rate the “hotness” of other users
  • Easy for adults to meet minors, used a lot to sext.
  • 300 million users.
• Yik Yak
  • Post “yaks” up to 200 characters long that can be viewed by the 500 “Yakkers” who are closest to the location the person posts from via GPS.
  • Anonymous posts are used to spread rumors, send threats or even encourage someone to kill themselves.
• Ask.fm
  • Almost exclusively used by kids.
  • Q&A site to ask anonymous questions.
  • Cyberbullying is common on this app and the app has been associated with a number of suicides since being around.
• There are many more that could be listed.  These apps change weekly and unless you are looking into the devices you will not know what your children are on.  Children are very wise to covering up the things that they know are inappropriate on these devices.

  Resources for Parents

• Netsmartz
• Parental Controls (AT&T)
• Family Base (Verizon)                
• Mobile Spy
• My Mobile Watchdog                
• Lock 2 Learn
• Qustodio for Families Premium    
• ESET Parental Control
• Norton Family Premier                
• Phone Sheriff
• Bark.us
• Teensafe.com
• Iboss Parental Control Router            
• Windows Live Family Safety
• McAfee Safeeyes                        
• E-Blaster (e-mails)
• Cybersitter                                
• Cyber Patrol  
• Child Web Guardian                  
• B Secure Family Safety
• Connect Safely                                  
• Web Watcher
• AVG Family Safety                      
• Guard Child
• Teen Safe                                  
• BeSure Consulting
• Net Nanny                                
• Covenant Eyes
• Victory                                    
• Fight the New Drug
• Matt Fradd.com
• Commonsensemedia.org