Kik – What It Is and What Parents Need to Know

kik-logo-thumbSexting has parents concerned – and rightfully so. A byproduct of this concern is a heightened sense of awareness that we’re seeing from parents. I get emails every day from parents asking me how to prevent their child from downloading certain apps, and what’s the best way to monitor what their child is doing on their smartphone. Sexting continues to be an underlying concern in all of these conversations — probably because kids and teens use their smartphones to text more than anything else, and according to kids in the UK, sexting is just the new way to flirt. But what a lot of parents aren’t aware of is the fact that their child doesn’t need to be on a texting plan in order to text. There are plenty of third-party apps that offer texting services for free, and one that has come up in several conversations that I’ve had with parents is Kik.

What Is Kik?

Kik is an instant messenger app—think AIM chat or texting. The app is available for free on all mobile platforms, and is well-received by the millions of people, mainly because it can replace a texting plan through their cell provider. Through their data plan or Wi-Fi connection, Kik users can send and receive text messages and photos to an individual on their Kik contact list, or they can start a group chat with several Kik contacts. Instead of using phone numbers, each Kik member has a username. This username can be accompanied by a profile photo, if the user wishes, but ultimately this is Kik’s way of creating a sense of privacy among their users.

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Inviting People to Kik

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Kik users can use the Invite a Friend option to invite new people to connect with them on Kik. This can be done in several ways, but the method that poses the greatest risk to your child’s privacy and safety is the ability to invite people via social networks. With the click of a button, your child can reach out to the public communities on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Tumblr (among many others) with the message “Kik me”. No surprise here, “Kik me” is Kik’s way of starting a new instant message conversation between the sender and the recipient, whoever they may be.

Kik users can also manually search for someone’s Kik username and start a conversation that way, or they can dig into their phone’s contact list to see who’s already on Kik. Of course, the latter is a much safer approach to connecting with people on Kik since these people are already known to the user in some form or another.

Privacy and Parental Controls

Though Kik makes it easy to block other Kik users and ignore message notifications from new people, they offer zero parental controls, leaving it up to the child or teen to set these privacy settings on their own.

Another Kik safety concern that you should be aware of, and this is credited to Michael Sheehan’s blog titled “Parents Beware: Instagram & Kik Messenger Are a Dangerous Combination & What Social Dangers to Check For”, is the fact that kids and teens are sharing their Kik username on public social networks, like Instagram, through comments and profiles. As you can imagine, doing this opens the door to unwanted solicitations from Internet trolls, “pervs” and cyberbullies. In Michael’s case, his daughter’s friend received a request to chat on Kik via Instagram and the next thing she knew she was being asked to send naked photos of herself.

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The reason I wrote this piece wasn’t to bash Kik or to tell you that it’s an unsafe app for your child or teen; whether you feel it’s safe enough is entirely up to you and the maturity level of your child. But just like with any app or website that isn’t specifically created for children (and thus COPPA compliant), the safety and privacy risks tend to be more prevalent. With that being said, if your child is 12 or younger, they shouldn’t be using Kik at all. If your 13 or older teen prefers to use Kik instead of texting, and you’re saving some money in the process, you don’t need to delete the app from their phone, just have a very serious conversation with them about the safety risks involved with sharing their Kik username in public social networks and forums. While you’re at it, take five minutes to make sure they’re using the privacy settings.

The Internet will never be a totally “safe place” for our children, so we as parents have to remain vigilant and educated in order to take what we learn and pass it on to our kids.

February 11, 2013 | Filed Under Community | 1 Comment 

A Key Tool in Flu Prevention: Your Child’s Elbow

Children Flu Sneeze Elbow SickYou can help stop cold and flu season in its tracks by helping your child learn to take a hands-free approach to hygiene. In other words, teach your little one to cough and sneeze into the crook of the elbow instead of into the hand.

Here’s why: If your child blocks a sneeze with his hands, the germs then spread to anything he touches – desks, chairs and pencils – and they can remain contagious for several hours.

And it doesn’t take much of a sneeze to start the spread of germs. Just one “achoo” releases thousands of infectious droplets into the air. It’s no wonder scientists estimate that about 80 percent of infections are transmitted by hand!

You can help make this stay-healthy strategy a habit by designating a “sneeze spot” on your kid’s sleeve with a sticker. But why is the elbow the safest spot to catch a cough? Unlike the hand, it doesn’t touch much of anything.

Finally, make sure your whole family does the elbow sneeze all year long – not just during cold and flu season – to remind your child to follow suit.



February 6, 2013 | Filed Under Community | 1 Comment 

Child Health & Safety News Roundup: 01-28-2013 to 02-03-2013

twitter thumbWelcome to Pediatric Safety’s weekly “Child Health & Safety News Roundup”- a recap of the past week’s child health and safety news headlines from around the world.

Each day we use Twitter to communicate relevant and timely health and safety information to the parents, medical professionals and other caregivers who follow us. Occasionally we may miss something, but we think overall we’re doing a pretty good job of keeping you informed. But for our friends and colleagues who are not on Twitter (or who are but may have missed something), we offer you a recap of the past week’s top 10 events & stories.

PedSafe Headline of the Week:

Skout, the Social Network that Focuses on Sex, Hooking up and Flirting. What Parents Need to Know http://t.co/2v1kudhq

February 5, 2013 | Filed Under Awareness | Leave a Comment