4 Must Know Apps for Every Parent

WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram

If these names aren’t familiar to you, ask your teenager!

Many of these apps are rapidly growing in popularity among high school and college students. And these (and literally hundreds of other apps) all have something in common. Even Facebook has admitted that teens are migrating away from the network en masse, moving on to other social media and messaging apps.

The tricky part for every parent is monitoring their child’s cell phone. What’s Right? And What’s Too Much? Most of all, we want them to have the opportunity to be kids, have a happy childhood and grow up to be responsible young adults.

We rounded up 5 popular apps parents should know about and how they can help their child explore internet the right way.

Whatsapp:

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging service worldwide. WhatsApp allows users to send unlimited text messages, videos, photos, and audio messages to as many people as they want, without fees (for the first year)

This is useful for international messaging, as well as for avid texters who are likely to go over their phone plan’s messaging limit. Of course, the app is only useful if your friends are also on WhatsApp, as you can’t send messages to others who aren’t using it.

Snap Chat:

Snapchat is an app that allows users to send photos and videos that disappear from view within 10 seconds after they’re received. It’s rated ages 12+.
Kids love the spontaneity of it. It’s been (rightfully) drummed into their heads for years that photos and videos you share are on the Web forever and are really hard to take back, so Snapchat’s a relief in a lot of ways. It’s playful and “in the moment”. Snapchat asks for your date of birth, and—if your birth year tells it you’re under 13—you’re redirected to the kid version, called “SnapKidz.”

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The Report Card App

The Report Card App is a companion App for parents that helps you track your child’s performance and stay on top of her studies at all times on Meritnation.com

Download the Report Card App

What is the problem that this app solves for parents?

1. Infrequent Updates: Typically in Schools, progress reports are shared after exams or during PTMs. This infrequent reporting structure means, that gaps in a student’s learnings are identified post facto. In today’s fast-paced learning environment it becomes difficult to go back & fill these gaps.
2. In supplementary modes of learning like Tuition’s, the problem is even bigger with very little communication between the Tuition teacher & Parents.
3. Typically the process of helping a child begins after s/he has received Bad Grades.

What does Report Card by Meritnation bring to the table?

1. Syllabus Completion: Helps you track your child’s performance on the goals you have set for him/her.
2. Recent Updates: See all the Study Material completed, tests taken & other activities that a student does on Meritnation.

Download the Report Card App

Key Benefits:

1. Continuous Monitoring: Report Card gives every Parent a one click access to a complete report of their child’s academic activities on Meritnation. Now you can check whether your child was playing video games on the computer or actually studying.
2. Early Diagnosis: If you child is getting stuck in a subject or a topic you can identify that upfront with Report Card. With early diagnosis you can intervene & help your child overcome his/her difficulties.
3. Motivation: Report Card acts as a huge motivator because students now know that their parents can see all the hard work being put by them into studies.

Download the Report Card App

Instagram:

This hugely popular photo-sharing site is owned by Facebook, so you may be more familiar with it than with other photo-sharing apps. The app is rated 13+  & users can add cool filters or create collages of their photos and share them across Facebook and other social media platforms.  Features like flag inappropriate content for review, block location or certain followers  are available for the users . Instagram also deletes underage accounts if they’re notified and can verify the users are under 13. 

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Next Steps for Parents

1. You can’t join every site or app and monitor your child’s every move online; teens will always find a new platform that their parents don’t know about yet. Rather than hovering or completely barring your child from downloading every social media app, sit down and go over some general rules to keep him smart and safe online. Here’s a good one from “If you wouldn’t share it with your family, don’t share it online.”

2. Tell your child to let you know if someone is hurting her or making her feel uncomfortable online, even if the person is acting anonymously.

3. When your child wants to join a new social media platform, go through the security settings together to choose the ones you’re most comfortable with. Advise your child not to share passwords with anyone, including best friends.

Yes, parental restrictions and software to monitor kids’ activity are options. But what’s most important in terms of these and other social networking apps is trust and communication between parents and teens. Teach kids about the importance of thinking long-term about their digital footprint, set rules and guidelines for media use, and keep the lines of communication open.

Do you or your kids use any of these apps? How do you decide which apps to let your kids use? Tell us your experience in the comments.

 Team Meritnation