iDelete is a photo sharing app made by the a company with the same name. This app is another Snapchat and Facebook Poke clone.
iDelete allows its users to create simple account to, then share photos with your friends you invite inside the app. What makes this app different than Snapchat or Facebook poke, is the way it stores the picture and deletes it
This app allows a user to take a photo from inside the app, then send that photo to another iDelete user. When the message is received, the viewer has a pre determined amount of time to view the picture. From 3-10 seconds. After the allotted time, the picture then deletes itself.
The difference from Snapchat though is how iDelete states the way the picture is store for those few seconds, does not allow a person the take a screen shot of the image to save it.
When you use Snapchat or Facebook poke, a well timed screenshot will allow you to save the senders picture. iDelete will not allow that
I gave this app a very high threat level due to kids utilizing apps similar to this for sexting or sending pictures they do not want to get caught sending.
The growth of Snapchat will only cause these type picture sharing apps to be released. Brace yourself for more
Pinger is a proprietary, cross-platform texting and calling application for smartphones.
In addition to SMS, users can call a number to leave an audio recording, similar to WeChat. Users can communicate with others who do not use Pinger via texting and calling. Calls are free within US and Canada, while texting is free in 35 countries.
New accounts receive a new phone number and 10 free minutes. You can add more minutes for talking as you wish, but it does cost. Similar to a calling card. Pinger is one of the founding text and voice apps for mobile devices.
Remember a lot of parents think because their child doesn’t have a phone with a data account then they can’t talk or text. That is wrong! This app uses your wifi or high speed Internet services and assigns you a number for free!
This means they can text and talk over the Internet. Similar to Skype. Also remember this can be adde to an iPhone or android phone. This means if you are monitoring the incoming and outgoing texts of the phone, this will not show up. To view these text messages, you will need to open the app itself and view from inside. They will not show up as texts or voice calls on your phone bill either. It just shows as data usage, just like they were surfing the Internet
I have this a moderate threat level since it is a messaging app. Be sure to monitor the contacts they have in app and also ask why they are using this app. Most children use this for 2 reasons. 1. To hide text messages from displaying normally. 2. They are using an itouch or iPad and don’t have a text messaging option other than inside an app. Aka text plus..Skype..etc
Glide is the world’s first instant video messaging platform, combining the personality of video chat with the convenience of texting.
This app works as a video message for Facebook user accounts. At the moment, you have to utilize your Facebook account to start your Glide app. They are in the process of setting up the app for email, Facebook or Twitter. So what does this app do?
This App allows you to broadcast video messages to friends instantly. If they’re available you can chat in realtime – if not they can respond later after your video message. This app key points hit on One tap broadcasting live video, No upload needed to send or receive messages, due to the app streaming your messages to Glides Cloud server, and also allows video chat with Groups of people.
One other feature I saw with this app is how you can text with the live Video Feed active at the same time. This requires the bandwidth, but on the back side is programmed to handle on Wifi Or Cellular.
Below are the points that are highlighted in the app review when you search for download
• One tap to broadcast live
• Broadcast videos even if your friends are offline
• No upload or download needed to broadcast or receive messages
• Chat one-on-one or with huge groups of friends
• Messages don’t take up any space on your phone – everything’s saved in the cloud
• View & respond to messages whenever you want
• No limit to the number of messages you can broadcast and receive
• Use text and emoji, even while watching a live broadcast
I Rated this app a High Threat Level for 2 reasons. One it ties to your Facebook account. If you are not monitoring all the friends your child has (you should start) then they now have a free easy app to flip to for text and Video chat. Secondly, this is a video conferencing application, and as with any video conferencing, it puts your child in front of others in a possible un safe environment. If you see this app on your child’s device, be sure to ask who they are conferencing with and see their friends list. Since it ties to Facebook at the moment, that means they have to utilize Facebook. Check their Facebook friends to see who they could be video conferencing with.
blue, blue app, white g, g, blue and white g, white g with blue background, g, blue
Badoo is a dating social discovery website, founded in 2006. Similar to matchmaker or other dating services, it is managed out of its Soho, London.
Opinions of Badoo.com on TrustPilot, which are based on user reviews, rather than press releases, rate the site as ‘Very low’, with a current score of 1.3 out of 10 (as of 20 March 2013). Complaints included fake profiles, and spamming of email accounts of signed-up users.
In a peer-reviewed study conducted and published by Cambridge University in 2009, it was given the lowest score for privacy among others.
The site claims to operate in 180 countries and is most popular in Latin America, Spain, Italy and France.
Badoo ranks as the 51st most popular site in Brazil and the 136th globally, according to Alexa Internet, a decline of 19 places since 2010. In December 2012, Badoo.com is ranked as the 59th most visited website according to Google, based on Google AdPlanner statistics.
This app should not be on your child’s device. This app is dedicated to the single adult world of online dating. Profiles are related for others to match on interests. Once matched, the app gives you opportunities to get to know the other party better.
This app got a high threat level due to its dating content. They do monitor sexual related posts, comments and photos, but this app is for adult singles only!
I am usually posting app reviews along with safety pertaining to mobile devices, but to educate yourself on your child’s website history is just as important as monitoring their phones or mobile devices. Don’t neglect to keep tabs on your home PC, and your child’s mobile devices Internet browser history.
We all know the importance of CyberBullying and how to watch for the signs in our children Everyone always fears the time when your child becomes the target for CyberBullying. But there has to be a bully somewhere.
I have been involved in conversation with parents, family and friends about the growing topic of Cyber bullying. I must admit, that often I have thought in the back of my mind … I hope my child never falls victim to the horrors of cyber bullying. I have never thought of it from the other side. What if after all the time of making sure my child did the right thing, what if they made one mistake and hurt someones online reputation.
For this thought alone, I wanted to review a website that I feel is just as dangerous as a lot of other sites with explicit material. The site is called Lemmetweetthatforyou.com The basics of this site which is very non graphic and straight to the point, is that it allows the user to make a false tweet. The tweet will appear that it came from whomever the person wants. People will see the profile picture and whatever they want to say.
Children are using this to be “funny” and tweet juvenile things about others, but sometimes it could be to much. At the moment, this is a website and not on the mobile platform. I am hoping that Twitter can do something about this to keep it from going to public and catching on.
The good news is, these tweets do not show as a tweet in your history. This is for pure Screenshot only, and can be tracked down to who made the fake tweet picture. Forensically this can be controlled and found out who did it, but for a child sometimes just one derogatory comment or something cruel is posted, that is enough.
If you do find this website in your history, please ask your children what they are doing with it, and educate them on the power of posting something that is not true, making it look like something else.
I gave this a very High Threat level, due to this being a site that encourages people to make posts that are not real.
Foursquare is a location based social networking website for mobile devices. They have an app on all the mobile operating systems. Users create an account then “Check in” at restaurants, events, or wherever they are to earn points. Location is based on the GPS hardware that is inside the mobile device itself, whether that be a phone or tablet.
The user invites friends to follow them as in most social networking sites, to view where their friends are checking in and what they are doing at the time. When you check in, you can attach a picture, a tip or any comment you would like. At that point, you can select if you would like your picture, tip or comment public or private. The private setting only allows your friends that you have approved to be able to read what you said about the check in. If you wish to leave that open to public view, then anyone that is a foursquare member will be able to view.
Some people will leave Tips open to the public for anyone to see. For example, if you are checking in at a local restaurant that offers a special on Tuesdays, you may want to let everyone know that. If it is a tip you want to leave for friends only, you may get more personal. I have read good tips and bad tips, but people are utilizing the social networking aspect to let others know about the establishment.
As I stated in the first part of this review, you earn points for checkins to compete against your friends. You get bonus points for certain things. Such as, checking in with others, checking in when other people are there or even for sharing a Photo. If you check in more at one location than anyone else and are consistent with your checkins, then you can become “Mayor”.
If you hear your children talking about being the Mayor of a location, or knowing someone that is a Mayor, they are probably talking about Foursquare.
Businesses are utilizing Foursquare as a marketing tool. If you start to look around as you walk into businesses (restaurants particularly) you will start to see the Foursquare logo, or Check in Here in the same colors as the Foursquare app. This usually means, they offer a discount or special price on certain items, if you check in on foursquare.
Foursquare concept started in 2009 with a company called Dodgeball and Google Latitude. As of 2011, Foursquare was reporting over 20 million users with over 3 million check ins a day. There is multiple language support for world wide use.
I gave this a High Threat level. I started with moderate, but then thought the idea of your child giving their location of where they are bumped it to high. Just make sure to monitor their friends list, and as always discuss the app with them and make sure they are aware and understand public posts versus private posts. Communication is shared with friends, so be sure to create a Foursquare account with them! On a good note as they get older, you will be able to see their checkins and status:)
Blue, blue app, check mark, green ball, green golf ball, ball on check mark
Growlr is a Homosexual Social Network app available on all devices. This app is named after its icon being a Bear. So you ask what are they referring to being a bear? That is what some people are calling a masculine gay man.
This app has over 1,000,000 members worldwide and allows homosexual men meet other homosexual men. This is an extremely dangerous app and needs to be deleted immediately off your childs phone. This app was designed as an adult only application and not intended for children. This app says there are no explicit pictures on the photos, but just a screen shot pic search you can tell they don’t monitor that to closely.
This app has a 17 year older download requirement which is easily bypassed. You can also check in and find other “Bears” around you. Be aware that kids are making horrible mistakes and posting other peoples pictures on this app and site as a way to fake an account to make it appear the other person made it. They refer to this as Growling, or Making you a Bear. They also may refer to other Real life Bear analogies, for example…. Are you Hibernating? Coming out of the Cave? Coming out of hibernation? A terrible way to cyberbully. Sexuality and sexual related issues should be discussed with your children by the parents.
Be on the listen for these type statements and protect your children from this adult content. This app is an adult app only and gives you the warning for adult use only when you download. Make sure your children are not bypassing that warning and going to apps without you knowing.
Heytell is a messaging app that does not use text like a normal messaging app…. it uses voice. Remember how popular Nextel was with the push to talk feature, now there is an app for that! And it doesn’t matter what kind of phone you have, because this app is cross platform ready for IOS, Android and windows.
A cross-platform push-to-talk app, with voice mail seems pretty valuable for people who don’t like to type. Beyond covering just about every popular platform, HeyTell’s interface is incredibly easy to use. First time users can go through their contact list and invite anyone via Text to download HeyTell and begin voice chatting. Once you have contacts with the app, simply choose one and push the button.
HeyTell isn’t true push-to-talk, but essentially it’s just as effective. The app records your message and instantly sends it over to your contact. If they don’t happen to have HeyTell open, it will send a push notification. There will even be a transcription of the message, so it even feels like you’re just viewing a text. That is, until you open the app.
The exchange back and forth between voice messages is so quick, you’d barely know it wasn’t real time. There’s no need to worry about data usage either, as the company claims that each message uses about as much data as sending an email. The app even works with just WiFi, so if you happen to not get signal in your home, but have WiFi, it doubles as an effective way to call someone.
There are privacy levels, too, if you feel like you don’t want to be available 24/7. Users can choose to be able to be contacted with or without an invite to open the app. You can also block some contacts or choose to allow others no matter your privacy setting.
There are paid add-ons such as a voice changer and group chat, but those aren’t necessary if you don’t want to spend money. There is also a send to Facebook or Twitter option which ties Heytell to other social media outlets.
I gave this a moderate threat level due to the fact it is a messenger app. Remember this app requires the other person receiving the voice message to have a Heytell account as well, so monitor your child’s friends list inside the app and as always explain the dangers. Setup the block feature as well to keep others from sending messages at times you don’t want your child receiving them.
Facebook Messenger is an instant messaging service and software application which provides text and voice communication.
Integrated with Facebook’s web-based Chat feature and built on the open-source protocol, Messenger lets Facebook users chat with friends both on mobile and on the main website.
If your child has this app on their device, then they have a Facebook account. Remember this if 1. You didn’t know they had Facebook and 2. If you have restricted their Facebook accounts, they still have access to chat with Facebook friends with this app.
Just for the record, right off the bat.. Yes it looks innocent, and Yes it is called CocoPPA. That spelling is not a spell check error. This app is made by Japanese company, and I have not figured out the reason for the name of this app yet.
CocoPPa is an app which enables you to make your favorite image as the “one-touch icon” and place the icon on the home screen. Seems harmless enough right? This app allows you to make custom icons for other apps. This app seems innocent , Hello Kitty pink and purple color scheme kinda feel for your device. The programmers of this app probably never thought of it being anything but a cute fun way for kids to change the look and feel of their device or phone.
That would have been a great idea, if they made the app icon disguise keep the same name. But they didn’t, it is customizable or set from a template. So you ask me, What does that mean? Let me explain
Digi Social is another Very High Threat rate app that i have reviewed in the past. WIth this Cocoppa app, they can download Digisocial (knowing it may get them in trouble) Then take this app and disguise the look of the Digisocial app, and even the name to something else. It could say You Tube but when you touch to open it, it then opens Digi Social app which is a plus 18 app with sexually explicit content.
This is every kids dream, that is trying to keep you from knowing about a texting app, or another app that they may have gotten in trouble with , and you thought they deleted. So you ask yourself, If the app disguised is not called the app it actually is, then how in this world can i ever monitor that? Will you have to open up every app on your kids device, to make sure it boots to the right application? The answer is No, and let me explain how to combat this.
This app basically works as a shortcut between it and the actual app, so you still have to download the app you are trying to disguise on your phone or device. So if you make a pretty cute pink app with bubbles and flowers and call it Bubble pop, but it actually opens a sexually explicit Digis Social app, you still have to have the regular Digisocial app on your device somewhere. The only place to hide it, would be inside a folder to make it less obvious. So to combat this, all you need is to look for all apps on the phone, even apps inside folders.
This app doesn’t replace the original app icon, but just makes a second one, and shortcuts it to original.
I gave this a Very High Threat level, because I wanted to archive it as such, to let parents know that there are disguise apps such as this out there, so pay attention to the little things. Especially the names of apps. One slip up could cause your child to see something they should never see. Be diligent in your social media safety!
If you are still confused, watch this Tutorial Video on how they show you to set up this app. You will understand the Disguise feature, and how it could be taken advantage of for the wrong reason.
pink app, pink, flowers, lace, rope, hello kitty, cat , envelope, three, three categories, three sections
SocialSafetyPatrol.com 