Jontracation
November 2016
PLEASE ENGAGE
Martin proclaims in the letter, "I will not sell my parental rights at the altar of pop culture, or at the altar of what everyone else is doing, or at the alter of indifference -- which is the curse of this age." So, I beg you to engage with your sons and daughters in this digital realm. I'm not overstating it when I say that their very lives depend on it.
Charles Martin - Open Letter to My Boys Regarding Technology
What Every Parent Should Know About After School
Click this link to read her review: Apps Every Parent Needs to Know About: After School
Did Your Child Receive Texts From After School?
If you're like the parents I've already spoken with this morning, you might be wondering how the After School app got your kid's personal phone number? The answer is easy. One of our kid's friends set up an After School account and in the process gave the app access to their Contacts list. Your child can stop receiving the text messages from After School by replying STOP to the text message.
After School App -- Preys on Our Children
According to the description in the iTunes store, "After School is an anonymous and private message board for your school." Anonymous and private are never good together! This app raises so many red flags for me.
First, the app works very hard to build a wall between students and adults. In order to set up an account you have to link to a Facebook page. The purpose of the link to Facebook is to verify age and location. The app wants to group users by school. In 2014, Venturebeat.com reported that Facebook had no idea how many fake accounts it had, but estimated that it could be as many as 140 million. You have to ask yourself, who are you allowing to interact with your son or daughter?
The second red flag is that linking to Facebook is only the first hoop you have to jump through. If I were trying to set up an After School account, I would need to create a fake Facebook account, but that would not give me total access to the app. In order to access more explicit content, the app asks the user to scan the bar code on the user's driver's license. I want to pause here so you can think about all the information that is stored in that bar code. Parents, we must talk to our kids about privacy and how to protect it.
The third red flag is that the app is rated 17+. Anyone, regardless of age can install the app if there are no parental restrictions set on the phone. I've been begging for at least 5 years now, please know what apps your child has installed on his/her phone.
After School Takes Advantage of Our Kids
The Internet is full of blog posts that claim that many of After School's posts are generated by bots and not by actual people. Here's a link to one of these blog posts -- "After School" App Manipulates Users. Read it for yourself and decide.
DO SOMETHING
I am begging you not turn an blind eye to the technology that you have given your children. Here are some questions to ask yourself --
- Do you know what apps are installed on your child's phone?
- Do you filter your internet at home?
- How many followers does your son/daughter have on Instagram?
- How many Snaps does your son/daughter send each day?
- To whom are they sending Snaps? From whom are they receiving Snaps?
- What is Snapchat anyway?
- Have you ever looked at their camera roll?
Here's a link to all the resources I've collected over the past 5 years about technology and social media. It's a growing, ever-evolving resource. Navigating Technology
Parental Restrictions
Below is a video that will show you exactly how to turn off the App Store.
Christina Jontra
Grace Community School
Email: cjontra@gracetyler.org
Website: gracetyler.org
Phone: 9035665661
Twitter: @jontracation