So you bought your daughter an iPhone or an Android mobile device because, well hey, all the kids have them and it’s dangerous for kids to be outside the house without a way to communicate with you, right? What if there is an emergency? What if they’re in trouble and need your help?
What if they are sending nude pictures of themselves to other pre-teens?
A Dinwiddie mother got a nasty shock when she went through her daughter’s cell phone and tablet. The pictures she discovered were so disturbing that she turned the girl in to sheriff’s deputies.
The parents discovered their 13-year-old daughter, who is about to enter the eighth-grade, had been sending and receiving naked pictures of other teens using her tablet.
And the deeper they dug, the worse it got. In fact, things got so bad they called in the sheriff’s department to investigate.
“What scares me is, this is much bigger than we realize. How many others are doing this and you don’t realize it,” asked the Dinwiddie County mother of two.
Parents need to wake up. The $500 device you bought for your teen is most likely a conduit for pornography. It could be racy pictures sent by Snapchat and destroyed seconds later, sexting, solicitation, bullying or worse yet, full on child pornography. Don’t be naive. If you have teens with phones or tablets, it’s happening in your house.
Take charge and fix it. Put filters on your home internet. It’s easy and effective. Monitor the online activity of your child. Tell them the expensive device you gave them can be taken away as fast as they can delete a snapchat. Be informed. Look for ways to protect your kids. Go on — use Google and take action.