3 popular but potentially harmful apps for your teens

No, we are not talking about Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp or Instagram. Teenagers use more apps than we are aware of, and keep themselves more updated on technology. Discovering new apps should not be discouraged, since it broadens their horizon significantly. But there can be hidden pitfalls to using an innocent looking app. We have discussed 3 such cases below.  

Zoomerang  
Zoomerang is one of the most popular apps this year. It’s a simple video creator that allows users to capture short videos, add filters, effects and music, and share them. Teenagers love using Zoomerang to make Instagram and TikTok vidoes. But the problem lies with the app’s location tracking feature. Since the app is rated E for Everyone, cyberbullying and stalking occurs often on it. Predators easily find teens through geo tracking, take screenshots of portions of their video (which is alarmingly easy on the app), manipulate these and blackmail teens. Ask your teen to disable location tracking, and restrict video sharing to direct messages to friends.  

Parlor 
Parlor is a voice enabled social app for chatting, messaging and sharing photos. The problem is that teenagers are often confusing it with Parler, as the latter app wants them too. Parler has been banned on Amazon, Google and Apple. But by that time, the damage was done. Parler was used by extremists to introduce teens to violent conversations about guns, attacks and killing, and plans on attacking the US Capitol were shared on Parler. If you see this app in your teen’s device, just uninstall.   

Tellonym  
An anonymous messaging app, Tellonym became ultra-popular by calling itself ‘the most honest place on the internet’. This tagline has invited a deluge of middle and high school kids who are asking objectionable questions anonymously, and reading sexually explicit, racist, and violent content. It also allows kids to access the internet bypassing parental controls. The best thing to do is uninstall it, and then help your kid find healthier sites that answer questions, such as Quora or WikiPedia / WikiHow, and other science backed sites.