parenting

How to Spot an Internet Troll

May 21, 2020 by Danielle Rivera

If you’re on social media, you’ve come across internet trolls. They’re on every social media platform, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. It’s almost impossible to avoid them. Read today’s GKIS article to find out why people troll and how you can minimize your child’s risk of being targeted.

What are internet trolls?

An internet troll is someone who makes intentionally inflammatory, rude, or upsetting statements online to elicit strong emotional responses in viewers or to steer the conversation off-topic. I Popular influencers, like Perez Hilton, have become famous for their trolling. Unfortunately, even your friends and family can act like trolls when they’re fired up about a certain topic. But if a “friend” online regularly shows troll-like behavior, it’s best to steer clear of them or, even better, block them altogether.

Why do people troll?

To feel empowered
There are few consequences
They are immature and think it’s funny
They feel so passionate about their topic they get emotionally triggered
They’re envious and want to take the poster down
They’re in a bad mood ii
They are feeling incited by other trolls ii
They are in a spiral of negativity ii

How to Spot an Internet Troll

Internet trolls are easy to spot once you are aware of certain online behavior patterns.

They don’t show their own face in their profile image. Instead, they typically use a seemingly “funny” photo of a cartoon character, a celebrity photo, or a random image.
Their username is a nickname rather than their real name.
Their education is listed “The School of Hard Knocks” or some other cliché.
They are typically following several accounts but have few to no followers themselves.
They usually have a lot of memes on their profile.
There often have several offensive and controversial posts or interactions with controversial comments.
They usually take extreme political or opinion positions on certain issues and repeatedly focus on them.
They are likely attacking more than one account.

Troll Tactics

Trolls get creative when it comes to targeting their victim. They have come up with several tactics to use when trolling their victims such as refusing to back down on known fallacies, troll telephone, aggressively poor reading comprehension, threats and doxxing, and it wasn’t me. All these tactics have their own ways in which trolling takes place. iv

Demeaning Nicknames

Used to insult and provoke their victim, like “libtard,” “heartbreaker,” and even more personalized attacks like “DanielleSucks.”

Incredulous Questions

Used to insinuate that a person’s post can’t possibly be what they meant and to provoke shame and humiliation (e.g., “Did you really just say you agree with him?”)

Isolating the Victim

Making the victim feel small for pretending to have or creating an “army” of allies.

Theoretical laughter

Used to belittle the victim, for example responding “HAHAHA” or “Wow” or “You’re so dumb I can’t even understand you.” iii

Refusing to Back Down with a Known Fallacy

Also known as “lying about lying”, this strategy is common when trolls are trying to hurt you professionally

Troll Telephone

This means that the troll passes rumors from one troll to the next, so it becomes a repeating cycle.

Aggressively Poor Reading Comprehension

This refers to web the troll claims you wrote/said something you did not and then using “your own words” against you.

Doxxing

Doxxing refers to posting peoples personal information online for the public to see and making their victim feel unsafe. Doxing frequently escalates to direct threatening and cyberstalking.

It Wasn’t Me

If a victim dares to publicize that they are getting trolled, the troll acts shocked and blames the victim for not being able to take a joke or that you asked for it by responding. This is a form of gas lighting.

Signs That Your Child Might Be Getting “Trolled”

If a child is frequently interacting with a troll, they may show signs they are being cyberbullies. Here are some signs from Dr. Bennett’s book, Screen Time in the Mean Time: A Parenting Guide to Get Kids and Teens Internet Safe, to look out for:

mood changes
distancing themselves from you and their friends
changing appearance and/or ways they act
using new slang
deleting their browser history or switching windows when you walk in like they’re ashamed
frequently asking for reassurance
thoughts of self-harm

Steps to Defeating Internet Trolls

Understand who is harassing you.

According to write Ragen Chastain, there are three types of troll attackers: The Thinker who often fabricates stories, The Zombie Army whose main goal is to hurt the person they are attacking where it hurts, and the The Zealot who is obsessive about ruining your life by making fake profiles and websites about you just to express their hate for you. Iv

Find out why they are harassing you.

Often times this is not evident. It may be as simple as a teenager who has too much time. Trolls are made, not born into being a troll ii.

Question yourself if the engagement is adding anything positive to your life.

Try these tactics to remove yourself from the fight.

Bore them into disengagement by ignoring them.
Simply type, “I don’t feed trolls.”
Mute/Block/or Blacklist them.
Put your account on private. V

Why is trolling potentially harmful to kids?

Kids are especially vulnerable to trolling due to lack of experience and immature social skills. One unexpected or shocking negative comment online can have a damaging impact and has been demonstrated to contribute to clinically impairments like depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Once when I was younger, peers posted cruel comments on my Facebook profile body shaming me and calling me fat and gross. That post changed the way I viewed myself in ways I still struggle with today at the age of 22.

What to do if Your Child is Being Trolled

Suggest a cooling-off period from the forum where the trolling is occurring.
Adopt our free Connected Family Screen Agreement to start important safety discussions where your kids learn from you and you learn from them. A strong parent-child alliance is your best defense against bad actors online.
Set parental controls and adopt smart tech tools, like those offered in our Screen Safety Tool Kit. With this tool kit you will gain the knowledge to set up screen monitoring so that way if your child is experiencing trolls and not telling you, you will be able to be notify yourself. Also setting up parental controls with the help of this tool kit will also be valuable because it will allow you to give your child a safer internet experience. You can get this valuable tool kit for $37 off the GKIS website.
Set up your home and adopt rules for smart and safe screen use using our family tested blueprint in our Connected Family Course. This 10-step course offers new and creative ways to get your household screen safe. It takes less than 2 hours!

We have all seen how trolls harm confidence and stop cooperative dialogue online. It’s tough enough for adults to cope with, but for kids it can be really painful. Check out our Screen Safety Toolkit to improve your family’s online safety. A special thank you to Danielle Rivera for researching and co-writing this article.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe

Works Cited

^[i]Vicente, Vann (2020). What Is an Internet Troll? Retrieved from https://www.howtogeek.com/465416/what-is-an-internet-troll-and-how-to-handle-trolls/

^[ii]Kubota, Taylor (2017). Stanford research shows that anyone can become an Internet Troll. Retrieved from https://news.stanford.edu/2017/02/06/stanford-research-shows-anyone-can-become-internet-troll/

^[iii]Brandau, Melvina (2016). Adolescent Victims’ Experiences with Cyberbullying: A Grounded Theory Study. Retrieved from https://commons.und.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2880&context=theses

^[iv]A Medium Corporation (2018). The Complete Guide to Understanding and Dealing with Online Trolls. Retrieved from https://medium.com/better-humans/the-complete-guide-to-understanding-and-dealing-with-online-trolls-4a606ae25c2c

^[v]Study Break (2018). 5 Easy Ways to Get Rid of Internet Trolls. Retrieved from https://studybreaks.com/culture/internet-trolls/

Photo Credit

Photos by Peggy_Marco on Pixabay

Photo by Open Clipart-Vectors on Pixabay

Photo by Geralt on Pixabay

The GKIS Sensible Parent’s Guide to Roblox

May 20, 2020 by Jess Sherchan

Roblox is a multiplayer entertainment platform where users can create their own 3D environments and game modes. There are literally millions of games on Roblox. Players are able to explore different worlds and interact with other players. The possibilities on Roblox are only limited by the player’s imagination, but this can also leave room for questionable activity. Roblox shares many similarities with other videogames in the same category, namely Minecraft, but there are some very distinct differences. This GKIS Sensible guide will provide you with the information you need to decide if Roblox is right for your child.

How long has Roblox been around and how popular is it?

Roblox was developed by David Baszucki and Erick Cassel and was released in 2006.[1] Through the years the popularity of Roblox has steadily been increasing. It currently boasts more than 100 million monthly players![2] There are no signs of Roblox losing popularity anytime soon.

Getting Started on Roblox

Roblox is free to download on PC, Mobile Phones, and Xbox One
Requires age of 13 or adult to help child sign up
Parental controls may be set to restrict the ways a child may play
You may purchase in-game currency with real-world currency to buy in-game clothing and hairstyles for your avatar.

Features of Roblox

Roblox is always an online multiplayer game with many different game modes, most of which are created by players. The game modes on Roblox are nearly endless, so we will elaborate on some of the most popular.

Meep City
- Players are given an empty house and they choose how they want to furnish it.
- Players can work to earn in-game currency in order to choose how to furnish the house.
- Other players can visit your house and see how you decorated it.
Murder Mystery
- You’re put in a game with up to 10 different players.
- One person is given the role of the murderer and is given a knife.
- One person is given the role of the sheriff and is given a gun.
- The sheriff must find out who the murderer is before he murders all of the other players.
Work at a Pizza Place
- Players work at a pizza place.
- Pizza orders come into the pizza place and the player must fulfill the order.
- Once the player has fulfilled enough orders and accumulated enough money.
- The player may choose to expand their pizza business and hire non-player employees to fulfill orders.
Jailbreak
- You’re put into a prison with other players.
- You must work together with other players to break out of prison.
- The players must escape the other players who are police officers that have to chase them around the prison.
- After escaping the prison, players can enter a city and continue to hide from the police officers.
Obby
- Player created platformer style map.
- Players must avoid obstacles and jump from one platform to another.
- The objective is to reach the end of the map without dying.
- After reaching the end, the player is awarded different types of items that can be utilized in that specific obby.

The Benefits of Roblox

Communication Skills

Children can build communication skills, as they are required to interact and collaborate with their fellow players.

Creativity

Players are also encouraged to showcase their creativity by putting together custom maps.

Financial Responsibility

Children may also learn a bit about financial responsibility as they must manage their in-game currency to buy items.

Parental Control

Parents have the ability to moderate how much their child plays. With the parental controls, parents can limit who can message the child, who can chat with them in the app, and who can chat with them in the games. Click Settings > Privacy to adjust parental controls. There is no voice chat, and text chat is set up so inappropriate language is not allowed.

The Risks of Roblox

Distraction

Roblox has relatively few risks involved with it. One of the main risks of Roblox is that children may choose to play it for extended periods of time.

Violence

Roblox also has some instances of violence within it such as

Shooting a player with a gun
Stabbing a player with a knife

Stranger Danger

Another noteworthy risk of Roblox is the risk of interacting with malicious strangers in-game.

Cyberbullying

Some players may choose to cyberbully others through the in-game text chat. Some of the players may be much older in real life, and it is important that children do not share personal information in-game. For further information, please take a look at the GKIS article about The Dangers of Online Multiplayer Video Games.

Roblox Safety Ideas

Stay nearby for supervision.

Play Roblox with your child.

Read and discuss Roblox’s Community Rules.

Use parental controls.

Teach your child about blocking and reporting features.

Track child playing time.

GetKidsInternetSafe rates Roblox as a yellow-light app, because while it is an amazing creative outlet for kids, the online interactions they have with strangers should be closely monitored. Team games like Roblox can be really fun, but they have their risks. If you think your tween or teen is ready to play Roblox or if they are on it and you want to optimize safety and good judgment, YOU WILL LOVE OUR GKIS Social Media Readiness Training Course. It covers social media and gaming risks to digital injury and teaches tweens and teens the psychological wellness tools they need to thrive!

Thanks to CSUCI intern, Jess Sherchan for researching robots/blocks and co-authoring this article. If you would like to learn about other games that promote creativity in kids please check out the GKIS article on The Sims!

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com

Works Cited

[1] Dredge, Stuart (2019) All you need to know about Roblox https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/sep/28/roblox-guide-children-gaming-platform-developer-minecraft-fortnite

[2] Alexander, Julia (2019) Roblox surpasses Minecraft with 100 million monthly players https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/2/20752225/roblox-100-million-users-minecraft-youtube-twitch-pewdiepie-keemstar

Photo Credits

Photo by Henry Burrows (Flickr)
Photo by Raytheawesomeguy2015 (Flickr)
Photo by Pioneer Library System (Flickr)
Photo by Eric Snopel (Flickr)

Is Your Teen Selling Nudes on OnlyFan?

May 20, 2020 by Danielle Rivera

We all want easy money, especially teenagers. The website OnlyFans.com promises huge profit just by selling their uncovered bodies to men and women prowlers of the internet. This has become a phenomenon to young people all across every social media platform with advertisements to their personal accounts.

What is “OnlyFans.com?”

Onlyfans.com is a social media platform built for sharing nudes, displaying sexual actions live on a webcam, and share private calls with a person who is willing to pay extra[i]. Launched in 2016, it has sky rocketed within the last year, exceeded over 20 million registered users. This website states in terms and agreement that it is marketed for 18+ users, although users of all ages have been seen to be on this website. This website is gloried across twitter where people, young to old, gather and share tweets. It has become a popular topic amongst twitter often being marketed by users leaving their links on their profiles to get directly to their OnlyFans page.

Why create an OnlyFans account?

Money

Social media culture caters to the wealth addicted. We want to show off our nice shoes and fancy cars to prove we are somebody important. Everyone wants to get the next best thing as easy and fast as possible. The way OnlyFans has been marketed makes aspiring users believe they will become wealthy over night.

Fame

Social media influencers have become bigger than many movie stars to the younger generation. Young people crave the idea of becoming an influencer, trying to gain fame any way possible. OnlyFans offers this opportunity to users for their chance to go viral.

Sense of Empowerment

On OnlyFans, account owners charge consumers for services such as sexual actions performed, speaking sexual, and even taking nude photos of themselves to later sell all while being broadcasted live on the webcam. He/she will have to pay a fee according to the account owner’s expense. People who also own an OnlyFans account can gain a false sense of reassurance from other people by getting sucked into this idea that they are better undressed which can be harmful to a young teen who is barely developing their idea of what makes them feel confident.

Is OnlyFans.com safe?

Leaked Information

Many young girls have gotten their what was said to be confidential content leaked to the outside world by hackers who were able to get into their profiles and leak their videos [ii].

This can also help the viewers find out more information about OnlyFans webstars.

Stalking

OnlyFans.com is marketed as a safe pornographic website that has a lot of unsafe precautions when using it. There has been many cases where consumers have obsessively stalked OnlyFans account owners by directly messaging them abusive sexual content, as well as finding out where they live by stalking the specific user, searching their Twitter and Instagram to pin point exactly where they live.

Dangerous

Not only could this be a dangerous website for the user to use it could also be dangerous for the users family. There is a possibility your whole family could be put at risk if a viewer were to reveal where you lived,

Job at Risk

By using OnlyFans you could also be putting your job at risk. If your employer finds out about your use of this website they may not want their company to be represented in such way.

Family Separation

Your family may not be fond of the actions you take when using this website. This can cause there to be tension within the family which can lead to family separation.

While conducting my research on the web, I attempted to start a profile and it did not ask me for much verification regarding my age just a simple email, name, and password to create your account. I navigated through the website to get an insight on what the website looks like.

Why should parents be afraid of this website if typically its an 18+ user website?

Teens are especially prone to the appeal of looking sexy, sophisticated, and in control. OnlyFans preys on this vulnerability by glorifying this type of sex appeal which later down the line this can have a negative affect on a young teens well being by having these videos be linked to them for the rest of their time.

An eighteen year-old OnlyFan member, @xgabyv on twitter whose account is now suspended, reportedly earned $3,000 after having a profile live for only two days. Comments praising her photos included how “sexy she looked with her clothes off.”

While browsing around some more I came across a young girl, Alyssa Scott, age 18 charging for “1 on 1 screen time.” This 1 on 1 screen time meant that Alyssa Scott would be giving her services to one singular customer. She priced this at a much higher rate than her monthly subscription services doubling what she would gain from one monthly subscription.

How do I block sites like OnlyFans.com?

Our GKIS Screen Safety Toolkit [iii] offers easy navigation to parental control settings. It explains how to set up screen time management, filtering and blocking so that way your teen won’t have the ability to come across these when navigating through the web. You’ll be able to learn how to block certain social media platforms and set up alerts just in case your child does venture off into these unwanted websites. You can gain this knowledge and more all for the low cost of $37.

I would like young teens and parents to be more aware of this website and its purpose. I do not in any way have any judgement towards users who are on OnlyFans, but I do want to bring it to the attention of parents and their teenagers that this is not the only way to make money, feel confident, and have stardom. There are more teen friendly ways of doing so and I would hope that this article was able to help guide you into that direction.

A special thank you to Danielle Rivera for researching and co-writing this article. If you liked the article and you’re interested in learning more tips on how to be more aware of new websites developing that your child may be tapping into, check out our Screen Safety Toolkit on GKIS where you can learn what to look out for.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe

Photo Credits

Photo by Shawn Stutzman on Pexels

Photo by Tim Rogers on Flickr

Photo by Andrea Piacquiadio on Pexels

Photo by Jonatas Domingos on Unsplash

Works Cited

[i] Leigh Willis, Ashlyn (2018) Only Fans Is The Only Social Media Site Built Exclusively For Sharing Nudes

https://studybreaks.com/tvfilm/onlyfans-is-the-only-social-media-site-built-exclusively-for-sharing-nudes/

[ii] Harris, Margot (2020) Terabytes of Stolen Porn from ‘OnlyFans’ Was Leaked Online, and Creators Say It Represents a Larger Problem That Could Put Them in Danger

www.insider.com/onlyfans-porn-leak-has-serious-safety-implications-say-creators-2020-3

[iii] Bennett, Tracy Screen Safety

Toolkitgetkidsinternetsafe.com/product/screen-safety-toolkit/3

Trending YouTube Communities That Kids (and we at GKIS) Love

May 17, 2020 by Alexandra Rosas-Ruiz

Fun trends on the YouTube Explore page attract audience attention and vet the best online content and influencers. To build child resilience and teach problem-solving and good judgment, we at GKIS encourage parents to carve out the time to share online interests and co-view YouTube channels with their kids. To help you get started (or continue) having fun online as a family, we’ve found some fun trends and creators that may be a great source of inspiration for developing new interests and hobbies. Having fun together and building digital fluency and an awareness of what’s hot and what’s not will help you build credibility with your kids. Even better, they will start to teach you about what’s out there, and, ultimately, work with you to make difficult online decisions. Our goal isn’t to shut your kids off from online discovery. Instead, we believe in family togetherness, online learning and discovery, and building child resiliency and safety – and having fun while you’re at it!

**CAUTION: GKIS has chosen these creators because of their family-friendly content and the variety of communities that they represent. Although we are excited to share these amazing creators, please keep in mind that some of them are more suitable for older teenagers due to their language and the nature of their content. Further, many of these creators have hours of videos that we did not sample. Please watch and decide for yourself the appropriateness of each channel for your unique child.

Mukbangs

A kind of video trend that has been popular in recent years has been Mukbang videos. Mukbangs, a trend originally popularized in South Korea, are videos where people eat large quantities of food while interacting with their audience [1].

These kinds of videos are popular with young people because they can be enjoyed as entertainment, to satisfy cravings, or to enjoy the creator’s style, humor, and personality.

We recommend you check out YouTuber Zach Choi. Zach, with almost 8 million subscribers, takes his viewers through his process of preparing for his mukbangs, consuming the food, and collaborates with other popular YouTube creators, both in and out of the Mukbang community.

In his videos, Zach silently eats large amounts of food with occasional captions that describe the foods or promotes the creators he features on his channel. Zach will often do a combination of a mukbang and an ASMR video. ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, videos are videos that utilize audio and visuals in order to produce a tingling sensation that moves down the back and upper spine [2]. There are only certain people that get this “ASMR feeling”, and for them, videos like these can be very enjoyable to watch. Zach doesn’t seem to use inappropriate language, as he does not speak in his videos, or do sponsored content.

Technology Reviews

In the world of technology, YouTuber Marques Brownlee has made a name for himself with his thorough and unbiased technology reviews.

Marques is a creator who often trends on the YouTube Explore page and has over 10 million subscribers. For people interested in technology, watching Marques can be a good way to learn about the various features that go into different devices or simply get a professional opinion on what electronics to consider buying.

While Marques reviews technology, he does not promote buying the most recent devices or show bias towards certain brands. He simply reviews the newest technology on the market and gives his opinion on its features and performance.

For teens going into high school or college who need new devices for their academics, interested in creating content, or interested in studying technology, this is a great creator to watch. Marques very rarely does sponsored content and does not seem to use inappropriate language.

Food

In the food community, the brand Bon Appetit has created a popular platform on YouTube with a variety of series, all based on cooking.

Chefs from Bon Appetit post videos from their company test kitchen showing how to cook recipes from many different cuisines. What makes Bon Appetit different from your average Food Network cooking video are the chefs. While Bon Appetit’s crew of chefs provide detailed instructions on their recipes, they do so in a fun, humorous manner, letting their personalities naturally shine through and interacting with their fellow chefs in the test kitchen. This makes for some entertaining videos that have gained the attention of many young followers.

With fun and detailed videos, Bon Appetit has inspired this new generation to think twice about dining out and instead try something new in the kitchen. Two very popular series to check out are Gourmet Makes by chef Claire Saffitz and It’s Alive by chef Brad Leone. Bon Appetit does not seem to do sponsored content. This channel is recommended for an older audience, as some videos may contain explicit language.

Music

For people interested in music, the National Public Radio created a popular YouTube series called Tiny Desk Concert, dedicated to live performances from some of the most talented artists.

This YouTube series, which is on the NPR Music YouTube channel, posts new performances every month, with artists from varying genres and languages. These concerts differ from live performances, as they are played live with no prerecorded tracks or lip-syncing. Artists sing their songs live with either a band or by themselves with their preferred instrument in a small space that resembles an office desk, hence the name “Tiny Desk”, with a small studio audience.

This channel is great for young fans and music enthusiasts because it allows you to discover new artists every month, plus you can see your favorite artists perform their songs in new styles and see the different instruments and vocals it takes to best perform their music. NPR is careful with putting disclaimers in their videos for the artists that use explicit language, either in their songs or when speaking. This series does not do sponsorships, as they rely on donations from the public to keep the series going.

Charity

If you want to watch videos while contributing to a charitable cause, check out the YouTube channel Grandpa Kitchen.

This channel, with over 7 million subscribers, is a cooking channel created by a family in India to raise money for the local orphanage that they work for. The videos posted by this channel originally starred an older Indian gentleman lovingly referred to as “Grandpa” by subscribers. Grandpa would greet his subscribers and explain the meal he would be preparing for the orphans that day.

Grandpa cooked large quantities of food for all the orphans at his organization with the help of his grandsons. After Grandpa passed away, his grandsons took over the channel in order to continue the good work Grandpa started. Many families and fans from around the world have shared their support after Grandpa’s passing, and you can truly see how fans young and old were able to bond over watching Grandpa every week.

Although Grandpa is no longer with us, his grandsons continue to create videos with a similar format to Grandpa’s videos and continue to use the money earned from the channel to support the orphans with food, supplies, etc. These videos are in English, and the creators do not do sponsored content or use inappropriate language.

Discover Together

As we share these creators and communities, we encourage you and your children to discover new favorite communities and content to inspire you to create and discover beyond the screen. There are family-friendly creators in every community waiting to be discovered, all it takes is some time and patience.

Thanks to Alexandra Rosas-Ruiz for her research and help with writing this article. If you have questions about what your child is interested in on YouTube, try coaching sessions with Dr. B. These sessions, also offered online, can answer any specific questions on online safety and parenting in general. Sign up and receive special bonus products with your purchase.

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe

Works Cited

[1] (2020) Mukbang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukbang

[2] (2020) ASMR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASMR

Photo Credits:

By Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

By Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels

By Free Creative Stuff from Pexels

By Lee from Canva

By Pedro Sandrini from Pexels

By Ishay Botbol from Pexels

The GKIS Sensible Parent’s Guide to Twitch

May 17, 2020 by Jess Sherchan

Kids love Twitch! Twitch is a streaming service where expert players play video games while their subscribers watch. It’s a mystery to most adults how this could be entertaining. But with 15 million viewers per day and a $970 million sell price, it has clearly plugged into what kids want. In this GKIS Sensible Guide, we cover what you’ll want to know before letting your kids opt-in.

How long has Twitch been around, and how popular is it?

Twitch was released in mid-2011 as a branch of another streaming service, Justin.tv. Twitch was intended to be the more video game focused platform. Soon Twitch’s popularity surpassed Justin.tv, and it was bought by Amazon for a staggering $970 million.[1] Today, Twitch has around 15 million viewers per day and hosts around 2.2 million streamers.

Getting Started on Twitch

In order to create an account on Twitch, you must be 13 years of age or older. As Dr. Bennett describes in her book, Screen Time in the Mean Time, this age isn’t based on child psychology, but rather the COPPA law which protects kids from having their personal information solicited for marketing reasons. Parents are the best authority to determine the best age of adoption. To sign up, you must also provide an e-mail address, a username, and a password. Once you’ve created your account, you may begin personalizing your profile. It should be noted that there is no way to make your Twitch profile private, so anyone can access it at any time.

Once your profile has been set up, you can decide which of the two roles you want to take in Twitch:

Streamer: You stream the game you are playing so others may join and watch you play.
Viewer: You sit back and watch someone play a game. You can choose to interact with the streamer or other viewers via the text chat. It should be noted that you can view streams without having a Twitch account, but when you do this you may not participate in the text chat. You may also donate money to streamers.

Benefits of Twitch

As a streamer:

It’s a perfect platform to showcase one’s creativity.
You can interact with others who share the same interests.
Being a streamer can become extremely lucrative. For many it becomes a full-time job.
Many times, streamers will land sponsorships from companies and sent free items to utilize in their streams.

As a viewer:

Interacting with streamers and other viewers who have similar interests
Learning new strategies and tips from streamers who are skilled at certain games
Winning in streamer-hosted giveaways

What are the risks of use?

As a streamer:

Doxing: One of the main risks that plague Twitch streamers. This is when individuals find out personal information about a streamer and disseminate it online. Information such as real name, phone number, address, and more may be revealed and used maliciously.
Swatting: This is when a viewer finds out a streamer’s home address and calls the police with a false emergency. If it plays out the way the person who initiated the swatting intends, the police will raid the streamer’s house, visible to viewers through their computer cam. Obviously, this can be very dangerous to the streamer and the law enforcement professionals involved.
Harassment: Many times, streamers will be harassed by their own viewers via the streams text chat. This can be alleviated slightly by having a moderator in the chat who can ban offenders.

As a viewer:

Violence is prominent in many of the games that are streamed on Twitch. This may not be suitable for younger children.
Profanity is frequently used by streamers and also present in most of the text chats.
Harassment and cyberbullying may also occur from other viewers in the text chat.
Distraction is also extremely common among young viewers. They may become so engrossed in the stream that they end up spending more time than they should. This may lead to the neglecting of other responsibilities.

GetKidsInternetSafe rates Twitch as a yellow-light app, due to the possibility of harassment and the ease of communication with strangers. It is recommended that you watch the streams from the content creator before allowing your child to tune into streams. Our How to Spot Marketing Supplement to our free Connected Family Screen Agreement contains valuable information to educate your child to be a smart, informed online consumer.

Thanks to CSUCI intern, Jess Sherchan co-authoring this article. For further information on the possible career opportunities gaming and streaming can provide, please take a look at the GKIS article Is Your Child a “Professional Gamer.”?

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com

Works Cited

[1] Cook, James (2014) The Story of Video Game Streaming Site Twitch https://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-video-game-streaming-site-twitch-2014-10

Photo Credits

Photo by Ulricaloeb (Flickr)

Photo by Tim Bartel (Flickr)

Photo by Karl Hols (Flickr)

GKIS Offers Six Popular Instagram Pages Parents Can Trust

May 15, 2020 by Alexandra Rosas-Ruiz

Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps among teens. It’s entertaining, easy to use, and offers different ways to create content to share with friends and family. Instagram is a great way to stay connected to others and share about your life. But besides following friends and family, there are many popular creators that can give your teens positive and inspirational content while scrolling through their Instagram feed.

What’s on Instagram

Instagram pages can either have dedicated themes or can be a mix of personal and themed content. Many popular Instagram users use their platform to keep fans updated on their personal lives and share positive and educational content. Because not all content is appropriate for kids and teens, we’re sharing seven (six plus a bonus) positive and influential Instagram pages that are safe for teens to enjoy. Although we’ve done our best to choose from the most family-friendly popular creators, check them out and decide for yourself whether they are a good fit for your teen.

Meet Our Favorite Creators

Entertainment

In entertainment, the Instagram page zachking creates entertaining and mesmerizing videos using special effects and editing.

Zach and his team choose and edit their videos in a way that makes his actions seem magical. Whether its defying the laws of physics, conjuring celebrities, or making things disappear or multiply, Zach’s content is entertaining and leaves you wondering how he does the different tricks in his posts.

Zach King is entertaining and inspiring for those interested in learning about video editing as a skill or even a career. Zach also posts about life with his wife and two sons. He’s done many collaborations with celebrities and fellow influencers and occasionally does sponsored content, marking sponsored videos with the hashtag “ad”. Zach does not seem to use explicit language or explicit images in his videos.

Design/Organization

In design and organization, author and TV personality mariekondo (Marie Kondo) is best known for her organizational methods and lifestyle tips. Marie’s page is full of beautiful photos and videos made to inspire people to declutter their spaces.

This page can be useful for young teens to see how they can best make use of their space and easily keep organized. Plus, it can be really beautiful and satisfying to see clean, organized, and well-decorated spaces.

Marie is a firm believer that your space, as well as the things in it, should “spark joy.”After scrolling her page, you’ll feel inspired to clear out the unnecessary clutter in your life to live happier and more stress-free.

Aside from her design and organizational content, Marie shares photos from her fans on how they’ve decluttered and decorated their spaces and also posts videos about her two children. Marie does not seem to use explicit language or do sponsored content. The content she promotes is of her own products and projects.

Journalism

In writing and journalism, the Instagram page humansofny is dedicated to sharing photos and stories from New York residents. This page publishes stories and interviews from different individuals, whether it be about their current situation in life or an impactful story that helped shape who they are.

This page does a great job displaying the joys and struggles of contributing New Yorkers. It also does a good job of representing diversity in race, gender, religion, and political ideologies. For teens, this page can be a way to learn from different people’s experiences. By combining the images of the residents and their stories, this page also serves as a reminder to not judge others based on their outward appearance.

Caution: humansofny is recommended for older teens, since it talks about heavy topics like assault, addiction, abuse, etc. This page does not seem to use explicit language or do sponsored content.

Food

In nutrition and food, the Instagram page pickuplimes, run by licensed dietician and YouTuber Sadia Badiei, is a popular page full of vegan recipes. Food pictures have long been popular on Instagram. On Sadia’s page, you can find her beautiful food pictures and her easy recipes, perfect for people who want to go vegan or simply have a desire to start eating a more plant-based diet.

As plant-based food becomes trendier, this page is great for teens to get recipe ideas and get inspired to cook healthy foods to try and live a healthier lifestyle. Besides recipes, Sadia’s page contains posts about her hobbies, her partner, and positive messages towards her fans. Sadia does not seem to do sponsored content or use explicit language. She mainly promotes her YouTube channel on her page with links to her YouTube videos in her posts and bio.

Travel/Nature

In nature and travel, the official National Geographic Instagram page, natgeo, posts pictures and stories from different countries and cultures around the world.

Like food pictures, travel and nature have also been a popular form of content on Instagram. The National Geographic’s page contains beautiful photographs and descriptions of the people and places depicted, educating their followers about different traditions, environments, plants, and animals around the world. Their posts often reflect the different events and news stories happening in our world today.

This page is full of interesting stories and beautiful imagery that can inspire your teens to research different countries and cultures, maybe even sparking an interest in traveling. It can also serve simply as a way to relax and read about different people and places. This page does not seem to do sponsored content or use explicit language.

Business/Nonprofits

Lastly, in business and nonprofits, the official Instagram page for the nonprofit organization Kiva, kiva.org, promotes the work of the organization and shares the true stories of the people this charity benefits.

Kiva is an organization that gives small loans and provides aid in accessing loans to individuals and small businesses around the world. Similar to the Humans of New York Instagram page, Kiva shares stories from these individuals and small businesses, specifically about their work starting their business, and how the aid from Kiva allowed them to grow and become more successful.

This is an inspirational page that shows the impact nonprofits can make in the lives of others and how the hard work and perseverance of these individuals helped them become successful business owners. This page does not seem to use explicit language or sponsored content, the page only promotes their organization.

Bonus Instagram Page for Parents

While your teen is enjoying the content from these creators, parents can enjoy the content from our new official GKIS Instagram Page. Get updates and notifications about our newest blog posts and catch up with Dr. B and our team of GKIS interns. Our Instagram page is a great resource for parenting tips and effective ways to keep your family safe online.

Thanks to Alexandra Rosas-Ruiz for her research and help with writing this article. To learn more about Instagram and how to best protect your teen on the app, check out our GKIS Sensible Parent’s Guide to Instagram. Learn about how to access Instagram’s different privacy options, trends, language, and our tips for keeping your teen safe on the app.