Our kids are able to find websites that are not recommended for minors. All parents must be aware of these listed websites so that their child will not be a victim of digital injury. Unlike apps, websites make it much easier for underage children to gain quick access to explicit content. GKIS will provide a brief description of the websites, dangers attached to the websites, and methods to prevent digital injury.
Websites to Look Out For
Parler
In our previous blog article, Parler the Free Speech App was covered as a social network platform focusing on the freedom of speech protected under the first Amendment and user’s rights privileges. An increase of conservative users arrived on the platform in the wake of feeling censored on Twitter. In a battle between liberal and conservative views, big tech censorship has become a public outrage sending users to Parler.
As for children, GKIS stands by our previous decided outcome of Parler not being appropriate for minors due to extreme views and lack of censorship. According to Google Trends, the analysis of popularity for search with interest over time (IOT) ranges from 0 to 100. From January 10th to 16th 2021, Parler had a 78 IOT.[8] With a high population usage and the ability to not fact-check user’s posts, children using the app would likely be exposed to false and conspiracy-laden content.
Onlyfans
One of our most-read articles of 2020, Is Your Teen Selling Nudes on Onlyfans?, explained the risks that on Onlyfans kids and teens may easily access pornographic content. Onlyfans is a social media platform meant for users to access a creator’s content that may provide sexual content to subscribers for a monthly payment. From February 21st to 27th 2021, Google Trends reports that Onlyfans had a 99 IOT.[8] According to Onlyfans terms of service, the user must be 18+. Still, there are reports of minors bypassing the age verification without parent knowledge.[1]
GKIS cautions that minors should not have access to Onlyfans due to leaked information, stalking, life-threats, unemployment risks, and family separation. If you worry that your child could become a victim of sexual exploitation, you will get huge benefits from Dr. Bennett’s weekly parent and family coaching videos on the GetKidsInternetSafe App! Your first 30 days are free!
Toomics
In this comic book subscription service, users can receive Japanese and South Korean comics on horror, romance, and action genres. The service does provide a family mode to exclude inappropriate content. However, children can enable or disable the mode without password requirement.
GKIS recommends monitoring this service or, even better, blocking it from your children entirely. There is a vast amount of sexual content and nudity on this service, including comic book sex scenes, incest, and rape. According to the Google Trends report, from February 7th to 13th 2021, Toomics reports an 85 IOT based on search popularity.[8]
Reddit
In 2005, Reddit grew to be the most popular forum website on the internet. But how safe is it for children? The service provides subreddits of vast topics into smaller ones (e.g., from r/books into r/horror stories or r/Stephen King). Subreddits are organized by moderators who are individuals who manage the forum. As of February 27th 2021, Google Trend reports Reddit as an 87 IOT.[8]
Reddit may not look dangerous, but it does have a high volume of not safe for work (NSFW) material that may be easily accessible to children who lie about their age upon entry into the site. Reddit can be used for searching, browsing, and messaging anyone or anything which obviously holds a high risk of digital injury. For more information on the signs and risks of digital injury, be sure to check out Screen Time in the Mean Time A Parenting Guide to Get Kids and Teens Internet Safe.
The Chive
The Chive’s mission statement is “an outlet for attractive ladies from around the world to strut their stuff.” Although intended to be funny, much of the content on this site demonstrates misogynistic views and a strong prejudice against women.
Google trends reports, The Chive has a 95 IOT from February 21st to 27th 2021.[8] GKIS considers this a red light service due to its raunchy and sexist humor. A study by Brown and L’Engle (2009) reported a significant finding that adolescents exposed to sexual content in media are more likely to engage in sexual harassment two years after watching the activity.[3]
DeviantArt
DeviantArt is an online social community where members share their artwork for critique and to build a fanbase. According to their website, DeviantArt has 55 million users and has a score of 92 IOT from February 21st to 27th 2021.[8] DeviantArt earned a red light GKIS rating because reviews report extremely violent and bloody works of art. Parents also report content involving cursing, insulting, stealing art, fetishes, and nudity on community posts.[4]
4Chan
This highly controversial (and GKIS-rated red light) forum had made headlines because of anonymous users posting nude photographs of dozens of celebrities, including Emma Watson. 4Chan users often endorse sexist ideologies against female gamers like the cyberbullying of Jessi Slaughter and discuss neo-Nazi radicalism.[5] Unlike Reddit, users are not required to form an account. Due to its anonymity, kids can easily participate in R-rated posts undetected and unmonitored.[5]
If you haven’t selected a child-safe browser or set parental controls on devices, through your internet service provider, or through third-party apps and services, you’ll want to check out our Screen Safety Toolkit. We did the research for you with this comprehensive how-to safety resource guide.
Tumblr
In our GKIS article “The GKIS Sensible Parent’s Guide to Tumblr,” we rated this social media platform as a yellow-light app due to sexual images and inappropriate content often displayed on member accounts. With over 30 million users and a score of 83 IOT as of February 14th to 20th 2021, this microblogging social platform is still quite popular.[8]
High-risk content includes self-harm, sexual content, eating disorders, and drugs. There are also reports of sex offenders using the website to incite sexual conversations with children. We stand by our previous decision to recommend parents closely monitor their teen’s activities within the website.
Pornographic Websites (NSFW)
A popular website used for viewing pornographic content like photos, videos, and live streams is PornHub. To learn more about how porn impacts our kids and teens, read our GKIS article “Online Pornography’s Impact on Kids and Teens.” We previously reported that 13% of internet searches are found to access pornography. Due to increased access, that percentage has increased to 20% on the computer and mobile internet browsers.[6]
Fight The New Drug is a non-profit organization trying to reduce porn addiction and set regulations for the porn industry. In 2020, they reported that PornHub’s popular searches were “lesbian,” “teen,” “stepmom,” “mom,” “step-sister,” “hardcore,” “gangbang,” and “rough sex.”[7] Further, the average age for first exposure to hardcore pornography has been estimated to be 11 years old.[7]
GKIS highly recommends that parents add pornography websites onto their restricted website list in parental controls. The website Top Porn Sites can help you block them in child-safe browsers.
Hide it Pro
We would all love to believe that we can trust our kids not to search out, post, and collect inappropriate content online. But sadly, we just can’t. Kids and teens often delight in discovering and sharing titillating and forbidden content and hide it from parents. We cover how to check for apps that hide content in our Screen Safety Toolkit and Dr. B covers it in her coaching sessions on the GetKidsInternetSafe App. To get you started with safety, check all devices for Hide it Pro, a particularly popular hiding app.
Set up content restrictions on tablet and phone devices.
On iOS products, Apple has designated a method for parents to limit adult websites for their safety. Follow these steps:
Go to Settings > Screen Time
Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and enter your Screen Time passcode
Tap Content Restrictions, then tap Web Content
Choose Limit Adult Websites, and Tap Never Allow: Add Website[9]
In this section, you can add each of the listed above websites to protect your child.
Google has designated parents’ methods to limit adult websites for their child’s safety on Android products. Follow these steps:
Open Settings
Tap Digital Wellbeing
Tap Parental controls > tap Get started
Select Parent
Tap Get Family Link and install Google Family Link for parents
Tap Open (review the information) > tap Get started
Use the on-screen instructions on both phones to finish connecting the two devices. Once it’s all set up, you can use the Family Link app to keep an eye on everything[10]
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Christian Sandoval for locating harmful websites that parents should restrict minors from interacting.
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
[3] Brown, J. D., & L’Engle, K. L. (2009). X-rated: Sexual attitudes and behaviors associated with U.s. early adolescents’ exposure to sexually explicit media. Communication Research, 36(1), 129–151.
Memes are addictive and trashy, but that doesn’t stop an entire generation of people using and abusing them at any given time. The number of times I have tried to have a conversation over text with my brother and only received memes as answers is ridiculous. In fact, if I had a dollar for every meme that was sent my way, I’d be a debt-free woman. While memes appear pointless and mindless, parents can use them to manipulate their kids into doing homework and chores around the house. How you ask? All it takes is some knowledge about the dankest of memes, and you too shall become a meme lord.
What is a meme?
A meme is a highly shareabledigital image with a witty tagline. They are appealing, because they can be funny, clever, sarcastic, or simply tap into an unspoken but relatable concept. For example, some of my favorite memes are the ones that reference what it is like to have siblings, like the meme of a guy with an arrow through his head, captioned, “I’m sorry, you’re fine, please don’t tell mom.” Every time this tired meme pops up on Instagram, I have to share it. Memes not only offer personal entertainment, they are also a proven way to connect effortlessly to others.
The History of Memes
Believe it or not, memes were not birthed from the Internet! According to Britannica (2019), Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist, was the first to propose the concept of “memes” in his 1976 work The Selfish Gene. In a recentinterview with Vice (2018), Dawkins defined a meme as “the cultural equivalent of a gene,” meaning that, in the same way genes are passed down from person to person, memes culturally spread through the population. By his definition, cultural phenomena like fashion, slang, and fads can all be considered memes, as well as the traditional image with a caption that we see circulating social media today.
Dawkins’ ideas are elegantly illustrated with today’s dank memes(memes that are overused and overhyped) — for example the “free real estate” and the “salt bae” meme.
Salt bae: CNBC (2018) reported that the man behind the salt bae meme is Nusret Gokce, a chef and restaurant owner who became a viral sensation for the way he dramatically sprinkles salt on the steaks he’s prepared for guests. Since an Instagram video of him performing this action went viral, Gokce’s salt bae has become a dank meme and gets used for anything that is perceived as extra or snobbish.
Check out Gokce performing this amazing meme here.
Free real estate: This meme originated from the TV show, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!which aired on Cartoon Network’s late night TV Adult Swim. This hilarious sketch is in the form of a commercial in which Tim and Eric are desperately trying to convince a man named Jim to move into a free house. It ends with a close up shot of Tim whispering the timeless line, “It’s free real estate.”
In his YouTube video, “What makes a meme go viral?” Hank Green (2017) attributes the popularity of memes to the bandwagon effect. The bandwagon effectis when people join in on a trend or belief simply because others have told them to. Social media is a great way to increase the popularity of a meme, because it enables us to share them with the world. When someone finds a meme that they adore, they share it with anyone who will find it funny, usually with a caption like, “OMG you have to see this!”
Hank (2017) elaborates that a meme going viral depends on how extreme of an emotion it elicits in us. The more outrageous a meme, the more likely we are to share it. In my opinion, this also has to do with how nostalgic a meme’s content is. For example,the popular meme that features a clenched fist from the popular TV show Arthur can be used for a plethora of situations but is mainly used to elicit subtle levels of frustration and anger.
In my opinion, the reason this meme became such a viral sensation is the feelings of nostalgia it brought to millennials. I adored the TV show Arthur as a child, and every time this meme pops up on my Instagram discover page, it brings back memories from when I was small and cute.
The Most Insane Viral Memes
To become a meme lord, you must be familiar with these iconic memes.
Success Kid: In 2010, an image of a cute little baby at the beach clenching his fist began circulating the Internet. This image is usually used when something awesome happens that was unexpected. Check out its history here.
Distracted Boyfriend: The distracted boyfriend meme was discovered on Shutterstock, a site that houses royalty free images. Its appeal is self-explanatory.
World Record Egg: This is by far one of the most ridiculous things to have happened at the beginning of 2019. It all began when an account on Instagram wanted to see if a photo of an egg could
gain more likes than one of Kylie Jenner’s photos, which had 18 million likes. As of today, the great egg on Instagram has over 53 million likes and 9.9 million followers. This then sparked a series of memes with the captions, “Can this meme get more likes than the Kylie Jenner baby pic?”
Check out their Instagram to keep up-to-date on the hunt for the egg! @world_record_egg. Check out these amazing memes here.
Need more memes, because that just doesn’t feel like enough? Frequentknowyourmeme.com to maintain your newly-acquired meme lord status. You won’t be sorry.
How GKIS Parents Can Become Meme Lords
As the popularity of memes has rapidly risen over the last few years, it’s evident that memes are here to stay. Many people and workplaces are now using them to their advantage. Teachers are using them as motivational tools when they’re grading papers, and workplace managers post them in employee break rooms as funny motivational tools.
Mom, Dad – you too can be a meme lord! Not only can you bring humor into your everyday chore assignments, but you can mortify your kids for being quicker in-the-know than they are!
For example, use them as motivational and study tools when helping kids with homework. There is an entire genre of memes dedicated to random facts. These are known as WTF facts and include some fantastic information that you usually wouldn’t learn in a classroom. Of course, fact check. You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet. Kids love them! My younger brother will spend hours looking at these memes, especially the history ones.
What sites will help GKIS parents become meme kings and queens?
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, make one! Believe it or not, making memes is as simple as pulling up free design sites/apps like Canva or Imgur. Remember, if it doesn’t cause immediate laughs, then it’s probably not a meme!
Dr. Bennett founded GKIS as a service for parents looking to have more fun with their kids, which means joining them where they’re at. Become a meme lord to lighten up, have fun, and encourage mutual meme sharing with your goofy brood. If your kids are younger than eleven, they’ll be in awe of you. If their tweens or teens, you’ll get a mortified eye roll – which Dr. Bennett says is “the best you’re gonna get outta teens.” haha.
Thank you to CSUCI intern, Kassidy Simpson for providing parents with information they need to help become as meme savvy as their kids. Need more support to get Internet savvy and partner with your kids instead of lecture them? You’ll love our GKIS Connected Family Online Course. Designed to help parents lighten up and have fun with their kids while improving screen safety, you’ll see why Dr. B’s kids say she’s “the fun mom.”
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Tumblr is a multimedia microblogging social networking site that many tweens and teens use for streaming a scrapbook of short blogs, images, links, text, and videos and audio clips. Many of my clients love the creative versatility of Tumblr and most choose to have a public profile. Tumblr users commonly form close-knit, highly-involved communities that share common passions. Celebrities like Taylor Swift have benefitted from her 46 million following and reposting fans (#swifties) resulting in consistently viral coverage. Recently a friend of a client detailed her suicide plan on her Tumblr blog, triggering a welfare check from the police. Although this app resulted in a teen getting the help she needed in this instance, often times intimate information is used to get to an unintended victim. Trigger warning with this article due to the graphic and sexual image examples easily found on Tumblr. Sorry folks, but you NEED TO KNOW.
What is Tumblr?
Tumblr is a microblogging, social networking site that you can now use on your phone as an application. It was founded by David Karp and is owned by Yahoo! People use it to post, reblog, or comment on blogs.
What are Tumblr’s popular features?
The home screen will contain blogs posted by those you are following.
The home screen is where you can see posts made by other people; they can be blogs or reblogs. (Reblogs are when people take a blog and repost it onto their page for more people to see it).
To reblog a post you select the two arrows going in a circle; it will take you to a page where you can add something yourself to the post.
If you want to just like a post you can tap on the heart to the right of the arrows; if you want to leave a comment you can tap the bubble to the left of the arrows. Or you can share a post by tapping the three dots and you can share it via facebook, pintrest, email, etc.
The search icon next to the home is where you can look up other users; you can search for friends or you can just search for anyone that may blog about things you enjoy. You can type just about anything into the search bar and find people to follow.
It will also give you recommendations of what to follow; if you want to follow that page you can just click the follow button.
The lightning bolt icon is where you can see your notifications. People can tag you, reblog your post, or even comment on something.
The person icon next to the lightning bolt is your account information; here you can see your likes, who you’re following, your settings, and your blog information. There is also a place where you can start a new blog which is like a subaccount.
To post a blog you can select the big blue circle with a pencil on the main page.
What is included in the personal profile?
To look at your own personal profile you can go to the person icon, click your picture and username. It will bring you to your profile and you can see what everyone else can see.
You can edit your user name, background, profile picture, etc. It will also show things that you have posted or shared.
The big blue circle with the pencil is where you can post your own personal blog.
Top right hand corner is where you can edit your profile.
The person icon to the left of it is where you can see your followers, messages, search for other blogs, view linked accounts if you have any, etc.
What are the privacy options?
There are not many privacy options on Tumblr.
You are unable to make your main blog private.
In order to post a blog that only you can read; you must make a secondary blog account.
To make a secondary blog, you go to the person icon at the top right.
Tap the “create new blog link.”
These secondary blogs are unable to follow other blogs, talk to other users, like or post other blogs.
Other privacy information Tumblr offers are under the person icon. Select “Settings,” then select privacy policy.
In this section Tumblr just explains why they use your email, username, password, and age (such as using your email to send you updates about the app or site). They note that this information is kept confidential from third parties,
How long has it been around and how popular is it?
Tumblr has been around since November, 2007.
It is estimated that there are about 30 million users and possibly more.
Popular amongst teens and young adults.
What are the risks for use?
Cyberbully potential:
Due to the confessional-type nature of many entries, Tumblr users are extremely vulnerable to trollish and cyberbullying comments.
Inappropriate content potential:
Social media sometimes provides groups to make teenagers feel like they “belong.” However these groups can be dangerous.
Cutting: Those who may have depression and depend on self harm can reach out to others who also cut and share stories/pictures of their experiences, which can lead to more cutting and other “ways” of doing it.
Sexualized Content: Due to all ages being on the internet, parents should be aware of the sexualized images that are available through Tumblr.
Eating Disorders: People tend to use their blogs on social media sites to share their stories and/or pictures of their struggles with eating disorders. This content may give others advice or help on how to become anorexic or bulimic.
Drug Use: Blogs may be used to “brag” or talk about drug use, making it seem like a cool thing to do.
Making poor decisions:
Teens long to form private, creative communities and Tumblr is the perfect place to do that. As with all social media apps, Tumblr can be prosocial or destructive. Therefore if you teen wants Tumblr, I suggest that you continue to nurture a warm, collaborative relationship so they can come to you if they run across anything uncomfortable. And for young teens, definitely monitor content.
Due to the intimate and dangerous content often shared on Tumblr, I recommend this is a GKIS yellow-light app (with monitoring only). Kids are being introduced to topics that they may not be mature enough to handle (is anybody?) and are also vulnerable to cyberbullying. More scary to me is the opportunity that online sex offenders have for learning intimate details about children, such as special interests and personal identifying information. Tumblr is tantamount to confessional YouTube channels and social networking sites like Twitter. Do you have any stories to share about Tumblr? Please share them below!
Thank you to CSUCI student Adrienne Roy-Gasper for co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
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Did you know that the prefrontal region of the brain, the part that involves impulsivity, complex reasoning, and problem solving, doesn’t fully mature until we are 23 years old? This is why kids don’t recognize future consequence and make unwise decisions.
Did you also know that screen media may lead to excessive dopamine in the pleasure center of the brain in a similar way that all drugs of addiction do? That means some kids drift into pre-addiction behavior patterns, like “flow,” when video gaming or using social media.
Although every child’s different, boys tend to prefer gaming and girls tend to prefer social media.
Surging dopamine in the pleasure center quickly overpowers an immature frontal lobe. That means our kids need us to guide them well into what we consider “adulthood.”
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Christian Sandoval for locating harmful websites that parents should restrict minors from interacting.
