Parents BEWARE if your teen has any of these 10 apps on their phone...
Graphic by CCSO.
Citrus County, Florida - In light of the Citrus County Sheriff's Office's (CCSO's) recent Operation Lucky Strike, an undercover internet operation to apprehend sexual predators of children, detectives with the agency's High Tech Crimes Unit are sharing the names of ten applications ("apps") parents should be aware of, based on their higher likelihood of being abused by sexual predators.
You may have heard that certain apps can be dangerous, and you may have brushed it off, but just last week during Operation Lucky Strike, the CCSO arrested 11 child predators who were using these same apps to solicit minors - ome of them traveling to Citrus County to meet with who they thought were minors, but fortunately, undercover detectives pretending to be minors. These applications continue to give online predators access to our youth. Predators know how easy it is to go online and start chatting, so monitor your child's access as much as possible.
Top 10 apps to watch for:
1. Snapchat lets users take and share photos amd videos. App settings will also allow people to see your location.
2. TikTok lets users create and share short videos. There are very few privacy controls available, so it is not hard for your kids to discover explicit content.
3. Omegle is an online chat that allows users to socialize with strangers, worldwide, without users being reqired to register an account. It randomly pairs users with one-on-one, anonymous chat sessions.
4. KiK allows users to send an array of multimedia messages through a Wi-Fi connection and engage in live video chats.
5. Roblox is an online game with a chat feature that allows profanity, sexual content, discussion of drugs, and more. The age range of gamers varies widely.
6. Discord is an instant messaging app where users have the ability to chat via voice/video calls and private text messages.
7. Instagram is a social media platform that hosts a sheer amount of inappropriate content that users can access without having an account.
8. Whisper is an anonymous social network that lets users share secrets with strangers. The secrets are created by typing words onto images.
9. WhatsApp is a messaging app that allows texts, video calls, photo sharing, and voicemails with users, worldwide. It is a cross-platform IP service owned by Facebook.
10. Vault App is a password-protected app that hides private files such as videos and photos behind a functioning calculator app.
"Parents, remind your children that they should only chat with those online that they truly know, and especially never give out personal information online, like addresses, phone numbers, or personal photos," said Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast. "I recommend that you sit down with your child and talk to them about the potential dangers of the internet, social media, and online games."
Parents, please pay attention to these potentially harmful apps. Talk to your children about what they can do to stay safe online to avoid lurking dangers, such as coming into contact with an online predator. For questions about internet crimes, or to report an internet crime, please contact the CCSO at (352) 249-2790.