Risk-Taking Teens and Apps: A Bad Combination? ? iKeepSafe

Do you remember as a teenager how you tested limits? Maybe it was driving too fast, skipping school, or?. now I?m showing my age? streaking?

I remember when the whole school lined up to watch a couple of classmates run from one end of the campus to the other. ?Everyone knew it was going to happen, and of course the principals did too. ?So why would someone decide to run naked across campus?oh yeah, with ski masks to hide their identity, which of course everyone knew? ?The simple answer is that they wanted to show off and get attention.

We all have basic needs like wanting to belong, be recognized and feel loved. And these needs are powerful.

When kids and teens are confronted with a risky situation, they will weigh the risks and rewards, and sometimes the reward is more important than doing the right thing.

You can meet some of these needs for your children by being loving and involved parents, but they are definitely seeking to also meet these needs from their friends and peers. ?How they meet these basics needs can involve a variety of methods, but technology allows risk-taking at a very different level than when I was a teen.

There are so many apps (smart phone software) that are great tools for sharing and communicating, but they also afford risk-takers to use them quite differently than intended.

Some apps, such as ?Wickr? allow users to send text messages that delete after a short period of time, keeping parents from seeing the text. Some apps, such as ?SnapChat? allow senders to set the amount of time the recipient can view a photo before it is automatically deleted.

I?m afraid kids are going to see these apps as a way to do something risky because they believe whatever they do will be erased. ?Because that attention-getting photo will be immediately deleted after being seen, teens may think it is safe. That false sense of security is dangerous; there are still ways to save that image or even take a picture of it with a different phone.

The use of apps on smart phones is a topic parents need to discuss with their children. ?Take time to discuss rules and expectations about installing and using apps on their phones. ? There are thousands of apps that can be used for great things, but some may have a variety of uses that a risk-taking teen will find intriguing.

Oh, now back to the ending to the streaking story. ?The administrators were a bit over-matched by the young men?s quickness and they made it safely across the campus that day. ?They had their 15 minutes of fame but eventually had to deal with the consequences of that run.

In today?s world there would be hundreds of pictures and videos of the whole event posted on Facebook and YouTube. ?In my high school days no one carried a camera in their pocket, so that day is just held in our fading memories.
Missouri ICAC Commander Lt. Joe Laramie (retired) provides strategies and solutions for law enforcement and schools to address policy and training on a variety of technology and child exploitation issues.

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Source: http://www.ikeepsafe.org/parenting/risk-taking-teens-and-apps-a-bad-combination/

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