4 Apps You Need To Know About If You Have A Teenager At Home

The teenage years…. as if parenting wasn’t hard enough already.  This is a crucial time for kids to learn about making good decisions and taking responsibility.  It’s no secret that they will rebel, make at least bad choices and have their secrets. As a parent, it’s important to watch for any signs that may indicate self-harm, depression or isolation.  Here are some apps to be aware:

Vaulty. Vaulty is a password protected application that will store photos and videos.  It’s most appealing quality (depends who you ask) is that it will snap a photo of anyone who tries to access the “vault” with the wrong password.

Tinder. Tinder is a popular dating app dating that allows users to “rate” profiles and locate via GPS tracking. It is too easy for adults and minors to find one another. The rating system opens the opportunity for cyber-bullying; a group of kids can target another kid and intentionally make his/her rating go down.

Audio Manager. This app has nothing to do with managing your teen’s music files or controlling the volume on their device. It’s one of the top apps for hiding other apps.

Calculator%. This app is the same deal as Audio Manager however it is disguised as a calculator icon.

Safety and proper emotional development are what’s most important. We may not be the “cool parent,” but it’s important to keep a close eye and at least casually check-in.  You don’t have to resort to going through their phones to get answers. A simple discussion and letting your teen know they can come to you with absolutely anything may help avoid them wanting to hide things.

However, if this is something you’ve encountered in the past, Sedgrid Lewis, online safety expert, says the best way to solve this situation is for parents to add their teen to their iCloud account. That way, whenever a new app is downloaded by the teen, it will automatically download to the parent’s phone as well.