Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/450275
OUR YUCAIPA | FEBRUARY 2015 7 placed In a child's hand: A DOOR to the dark side Hand-held devices have become a black hole into which many of us have willingly disappeared. The next time you're in public — at a restaurant, in a doctor's waiting area, at the high school — look around. Count how many people are interacting with just their phones. I can almost guarantee you it will outnumber the ones who are still present in the world we used to know. What are they doing? Checking email? Playing a game? Sexting? Now look around your home… what are your kids doing? If you have a child with a smart phone or tablet, you may want to brace yourself. I can hear some of you now: "You shouldn't check your kid's phone. You should trust them." Sure, but do you trust the countless number of strangers with whom your kid is interacting? Your job is to protect them from this dark new world. As Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify." A survey of over 19,000 parents reported in USA Today in May, 2013, revealed, "Kids (are exposed to) porn from as early as the age of 6 and begin flirting on the Internet from the age of 8." And the Internet is in their hands, nearly all the time. It's a Pandora's Box that holds millions of apps with countless permutations of sin. According to the FBI, there are nearly a million child predators trolling for victims online and many of these interactive apps are the best tools for pedophiles and human traffickers. On the following pages are just a few apps that are particularly troubling for various reasons. Unfortunately, the minute parents find out about such apps and shut them down, three more take their place. Any of the apps reviewed could be perfectly harmless but the potential for abuse is high. Please check your child's usage, for their sake. "Never before in the history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene) material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions." - U.S. Department of Justice By Courtney Fox Taylor What happens when you take a screenshot of an explicit photo and share it with friends? It is a felony to take, share, or possess an explicit photo of a person who is younger than 17 (even if it was sent to you with consent). Those over age 16 who were involved could be prosecuted as adults. And parents who own their child's phone can be prosecuted for possession of child pornography right along side their teen. The Consequences