Guest blog: How to choose the best app for your kids

There’s no doubt that the Internet is a popular pastime for many of today’s youth. In fact, a report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that while the internet is first seen as a ‘filler’ activity, children rapidly begin to see it as an activity in its own right – and years of reaching for it as a solution when they’re bored encourage them to continue doing that as they grow older.

The Criteria Of A Good App

There are so many applications today that attempting to strictly define all of them is pointless. However, we can establish a set of guidelines you can use when examining the app and its capabilities.

1) Privacy

Many of today’s young children do not understand their ‘digital footprint’ – the permanent mark they leave on the internet as they continue to interact with it. Over time, this footprint grows and serves to act as a picture of who they are.

Fortunately, it is possible to curb the growth of this footprint by examining the privacy settings of the app. If your children are on a social network, you should be able to restrict who can view their profile – while non-social apps (such as single-player games) shouldn’t be asking for any personal identification. All apps are required to clearly state what information they request from the device, and you should carefully review this prior to downloading it.

2) Development

Children of different ages can benefit most from different kinds of apps. Prior to becoming teens, children should have their use of electronic devices strictly regulated, and they should not be encouraged as an instant solution to boredom – that can lead to smartphone addiction.

Instead, focus on educational apps and teaching games that can help your child build the skills they need later in life.

Once your child grows older – they’ll probably start wanting to get onto Facebook at twelve or thirteen years old, for example – talk to them about the apps they want access to and make it clear that you have to give permission for each one.

There’s a good chance that they’ll want to get any given app “because my friends have it” – which is fair enough, but you’ll want to make sure that they won’t have easy access to content they shouldn’t be seeing.

3) Contact Risk

‘Contact Risk’ is the potential for kids to be contacted by strangers through a social network. Now, as frightening as this may sound at first, it’s not always malicious – in many cases, it’s just marketing efforts by companies who may not even realize they’re talking to a child, and they’re not going to push the issue if contact is rejected.

However, people do use social media and apps as a way of trying to contact children – mostly, but not always, older kids – and form a relationship with them. This is a critical point to understand. Many potential predators are not planning to stalk and ambush children. Instead, they focus on becoming the child’s friend and gradually developing a willing relationship. For this reason, it’s important to pay attention to any strangers that your child seems particularly interested in chatting with.

In Summary

The ideal app for your child has:

• Some kind of social or educational value
• Ways of controlling privacy and blocking unwanted contact
• Methods for monitoring the content posted.

If the app in question doesn’t meet your criteria for all three of these, your child probably shouldn’t be using it – and while they may be upset at first, chances are they’ll understand if you explain it and ask them to find a better app that does meet your criteria. You might be surprised at what they’ll come up with!

This blog post was written by: Amy Williams