NY- Girl, 10, raped by man she met on online app Bumble, LE searching for suspect, East Harlem, 6 January 2024 *Arrest*

[WildcatRunner]

I think people without children this age would be amazed how common this level of access to apps and online predators actually is. I have a 10 year old. She isn’t allowed a phone, but she’s only 1 of 2 in her class who don’t have one. A number of her 9 year old friends have phones.

She does have an iPad (only allowed under supervision and on special occasions) and because of that, we’ve talked about all of this and looked at apps and talked about what’s safe and what isn’t. Nearly all of her 9-10 year old friends have TikTok and Snapchat. We’ve logged in and looked at her friends’ TikToks before. They have all sorts of weirdos following them (but their parents and siblings as well so their family is well aware, if I can see it, they can see it). It makes my stomach feel like it’s going to drop on the floor. Her one friend is regularly messaging all sorts of random people. And is up at all hours, 2am, 3am posting stuff. 10 years old!

I can absolutely see how this sort of thing could so easily happen to so many children and so quickly. You let your guard down for one day because you have to work and have no other childcare. They download an app, start talking to someone, they could be meeting them within hours. JMO but it’s really frightening how easy it is for predators to contact children when they have access to the internet and just a tiny bit of freedom.

I don't disagree with you at all. I have no kids, but 21 nieces and nephews, that I'm very close with, and around 9-10, all the kids are getting phones now. But there are ways to prevent them from being able to download new apps. Also, when they're with me, I keep their phones in my room at night, so they aren't keeping themselves awake all night with them, mostly, but I suppose it's also preventing talking to people at 3 AM. I'm not blaming all parents, and I know kids are sneaky, but just like it sounds like you do as a parent, there has to be some monitoring and restrictions around these things, and apps as a parent you should just say no to, even if their friends are using them.

 

[Shamrock1]

I don't disagree with you at all. I have no kids, but 21 nieces and nephews, that I'm very close with, and around 9-10, all the kids are getting phones now. But there are ways to prevent them from being able to download new apps. Also, when they're with me, I keep their phones in my room at night, so they aren't keeping themselves awake all night with them, mostly, but I suppose it's also preventing talking to people at 3 AM. I'm not blaming all parents, and I know kids are sneaky, but just like it sounds like you do as a parent, there has to be some monitoring and restrictions around these things, and apps as a parent you should just say no to, even if their friends are using them.

It’s not that simple. My children are strictly monitored and do not have phones. But many extracurriculars and athletics are, unfortunately, arranged via Snapchat. And there are apps that hide things like Snapchat behind a benign-appearing calculator. It’s not as simple as “just say no.”