Kik Messenger

This post is part of an ongoing series analyzing popular apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that are in Apple’s App Store.

Kik Messenger first reached the #1 spot in iTunes in the USA in July 2012 and has remained in the top 100 since.  It is an App based alternative to standard text messaging, and has added a lot of cool features to standard text messaging.  It’s a tough decision to let your kids use Kik.  On the one hand a lot of kids (and likely a lot of your kid’s friends) use Kik because it has a lot of neat features beyond simple text chatting.  Like Snapchat, you don’t need to give out your phone number to use Kik. On the other hand this is another app that allows strangers to easily connect with kids, and the extra features access non-kid friendly sites like reddit and imgur. The last piece is likely why this app is rated 17+ in Apple’s App Store.

App Analysis For Kik Messenger

Pro:

Kik Messenger is free to use and chat.

Kik has a lot of great features to make it really easy and fun to stay in touch without using any minutes or text messages from you phone plan.

Con:

In addition to chatting, Kik Messenger helps users exchange photos.

Conversations and other content on Kik Messenger can be easily shared to other social networks.

Instagram, SocialCam, and Viddy are some of the social networks Kik Messenger connects with.

This is probably the deal breaker for most parents.  Kik Messenger makes it really easy to connect to the unfiltered community of Reddit and Imgur.

Conclusion

Kik Messenger is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family, and can save a lot of money depending on your cell plan.  If you decide to let your kid have a Kik account, remember that just like with the physical world kids need to be taught how to deal with strangers.  There may be better alternatives to Kik Messenger that don’t have such easy access to inappropriate content, though.

We hope you enjoyed this app analysis.  Click here to join AppCertain’s discussion of Kik Messenger and view analysis of other apps.  If you’d like to get more reports like this for the apps your kids have installed, check out our app monitoring service.

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The post App Analysis of the Week – Kik Messenger appeared first on AppCertain.

Pittsburgh, May 2013 – AppCertain, a free app that sends parents an alert each time an app is installed on their child’s smartphone or tablet, has launched in the iTunes App Store. With AppCertain, parents receive details about the app’s price, in-app purchases, inappropriate or adult content, photos/camera access, educational content, and social sharing options.

Many parents and guardians have been enjoying the benefits of AppCertain from their beta release.  Anne Lopez has been using AppCertain to give her daughter more freedom and trust.  “[My daughter] was at a friends house, and a lot of times when these girls get together they are downloading the hottest apps and uploading photos to share.”  Anne would check her daughter’s iPhone, a process that  was both tedious and error prone. “Now I don’t have to actually check because I know I will get a notification from AppCertain to let me know what went on. In that way it gives her more freedom because I don’t have to actually check her phone.”  Ed Schwartz’s son installs 2-3 apps a day.  “[My Son’s] IPod has so many games on it, we have no idea what he’s doing on there.”  AppCertain helps Ed stay on top of any new apps his son installs.  “I’ll get an email from AppCertain telling me he just installed a new app.  Without AppCertain there would be no way of knowing he just installed a new app.”

AppCertain is the first studio company out of Birchmere Labs. They are currently being advised by Sean Ammirati and several professors from Carnegie Mellon University.  “Spencer has assembled a fantastic team which is killing it!  We’re really excited that this is the first app that helps parents be proactive with their kids’ mobile devices,” says Sean, a parent of two.

Spencer Whitman, CEO of AppCertain, says there’s a lot more parents can expect to help them keep control and informed of their family’s mobile devices.  “We’re really thrilled to be helping parents with an issue that has only gotten worse as iPhones and iPads have become more popular.  Apple has done a fantastic job making these devices easy to use, but there is a long way to go to make them safe for all ages.”

For more information about AppCertain, please visit www.appcertain.com and follow AppCertain on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and Twitter.  AppCertain has appeared in TechCrunch, The Guardian, The Pittsburgh Business Times, BlogHer, and Popcity as well as several prominent mom and tech blogs.

The post AppCertain’s App Monitor Service is Now an App! appeared first on AppCertain.

Instagram Icon

This post is part of an ongoing series analyzing popular apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that are in Apple’s App Store.

Instagram is probably the most popular photo sharing app in the App Store.  This is one of the reasons Facebook acquired the company in 2012.  An account on Instagram is not the same as one on Facebook however.  Instagram has a culture of promoting good photography and can be a lot of fun for budding photographers to learn and get feedback on the images they capture and create.   Instagram is a social network though, and focused on sharing images.  One issue are “pageants” where kids would vote for the most attractive classmate. So it’s important to keep an eye on Instagram activity, just like for Facebook and Twitter.

App Analysis For Instagram

Pro:

Instagram is free to use and play on.

Instagram is great for teaching kids about photography and applying fun filters to photographs to get fascinating looks.

Parents can use collecting interesting photos for Instagram as a great excuse to explore outside.

Con:

Kids need to be careful not to upload photos that contain their physical location.

Instagram connects to share photos in several social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Posterous.

Instagram is it’s own social network where people can follow others.  Just like on other social networks, parents need to be aware of how their children are interacting with Instagram.

Instagram users can comment on each other’s images.

Conclusion

As better cameras are attached to devices like iPhones and iPods, Instagram has become a lot of fun for many kids, especially those interested in photography.  Still, it’s important to talk to kids about responsible social media and photo uploading usage.

We hope you enjoyed this app analysis.  Click here to join AppCertain’s discussion of Instagram and view analysis of other apps.  If you’d like to get more reports like this for the apps your kids have installed, check out our app monitoring service.

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The post App Analysis of the Week – Instagram appeared first on AppCertain.

Snapchat – Share images that disappear

This post is part of an ongoing series analyzing popular apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that are in Apple’s App Store.

Snapchat hit the scene in 2011.  Since then, this photo sharing app has taken off, especially with kids.  The idea is simple. Take a picture, send it to a friend (or friends), and then the picture disappears after ten seconds.  While there has been a lot of concern in the media about sexting, the majority of Snapchat use is for silly disposable images among friends and siblings.  You can read how most young people think about Snapchat here.

App Analysis For Snapchat

Snapchat is not intended to be educational, and likely has very few use cases to be educational.

There are no in app purchases available within the current version of the Snapchat.

The purpose of Snapchat is to share photos.

While the Snapchat app doesn’t explicitly enable access to inappropriate content for children, it’s worth being wary and talking to your kids about being a responsable Snapchat user.

Conclusion

It’s important to talk to your kids about proper Snapchat use, especially because images can be saved and shared elsewhere.  The truth is most Snapchat use is benign, and kids need to be taught how to share photos responsibly, through Snapchat or other means.

We hope you enjoyed this app analysis.  Click here to join AppCertain’s discussion of Snapchat and view analysis of other apps.  If you’d like to get more reports like this for the apps your kids have installed, check out our app monitoring service.

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The post App Analysis of the Week – Snapchat appeared first on AppCertain.

Vine – share short videos

This is the first post in an ongoing series analyzing popular apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch that are in Apple’s App Store.

Vine has been the number one app in Apple’s App store for a few weeks now.  It is a pretty recent app designed to help people share and view short videos.  Let’s take an in-depth look at AppCertain’s analysis of the Vine app so you can decide if this is an appropriate app for your kids or not.

App Analysis For Vine

Vine’s videos are only six seconds long, so there isn’t much educational material.

There are no in app purchases available within the current version of the Vine app.

Users can tag posts with their physical location.

The purpose of Vine is to share videos on the Vine social network, to Twitter, and Facebook.

Apple bumped the age rating up from 12+ to 17+ after it came to light that Vine was being used to share pornographic material.  This is one of the issues with unmoderated social content.

Conclusion

Vine isn’t the first app to make sharing photos or videos popular.  Just like with the Snapchat app and apps for other social networks, its important to talk to your kids about how to be a responsible social media and mobile device user.  Remember, what goes on the internet stays there and can spread to anyone and everyone!

We hope you enjoyed this in-depth app analysis.  Click here to join AppCertain’s discussion of Vine and view analysis of other apps.  If you’d like to get more reports like this for the apps your kids have installed, check out our app monitor service.

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The post App Analysis of the Week – Vine appeared first on AppCertain.

In general, guided access mode is used to limit access to only the app that is running. After you enable guided access mode through the settings app, you can activate it at any time by pressing the home button three times. Once you’re in guided access mode, you can tap the home button three times to exit.

Let’s get guided access mode set up:

First let’s enable Guided Access. From the Settings app go to General and then to Accessibility.

image courtesy James Winchester

Under the Learning section, tap on Guided Access. Toggle Guided Access to “On” and choose a passcode. This passcode is separate from the device pin and the restrictions pin.

To turn on guided access mode once it’s enabled, first close all running apps. Then start the app you want your child to use. Triple-tap the home button to bring up the Accessibility menu. Then just press Guided Access to turn it on. To exit guided access mode, simple triple-tap the home button again and enter the passcode.

If you are leaving guided access on so that you can enable it whenever you want, we recommend turning “Enable Screen Sleep” on. This allows the device to be turned off. If you are mostly going to let a very young child to play with your iPhone, you probably want to set “Enable Screen Sleep” to off, so the child does not accidentally turn the device off.

Disabling guided access mode:

image courtesy James Winchester

From the Settings app go to General and then to Accessibility. Under the Learning section, tap on Guided Access. Toggle Guided Access to “Off” and enter the passcode you chose before.

If you forget the guided access passcode, you can regain access to the device by rebooting it. When you’re in guided access mode, the home button is disabled, but you can reach the settings after a hard reboot. Press the home and power button for at least fifteen seconds to reboot.

Guided access limits access to one app, which makes it a great digital sandbox for younger kids. For older kids, it can turn your device into a YouTube toy, to keep kids occupied during long commutes. If using it for YouTube videos, be sure to set your filters on YouTube beforehand.

Guided access mode is also useful for parents who need to share their phone with other adults, by allowing you to turn your smartphone into just a phone. But be careful. Photos are still visible and if you allow access to your contacts, text messages can still be sent and received.

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The post Apple’s Guided Access Mode for Parents appeared first on AppCertain.

To save your settings, make sure that you are logged into YouTube before beginning. Otherwise, safety mode may be disabled after you leave YouTube.

In the bottom left corner, click on “Safety: off” and options will appear. Simply click ON and then SAVE to enable this feature. If you’re using Google Chrome, you can opt to make Safety Mode the default for everyone using the computer (even if they are logged in).

Benefits:
Safety Mode offers many benefits for kids who want to browse freely, and parents who want objectionable material to be hidden. In safety mode, certain keywords won’t return any results (such as “naked”), and some keywords will return filtered results (such as “violence”).

Some searches will be blocked by accident. A search for “Naked Eyes” will show results for Eyes instead, but not any songs by Naked Eyes or anything “seen with the naked eye.”

With Safety Mode on:

With Safety Mode off:

A similar search for Naked Eyes by Enrique Iglesias will show songs that include this artist’s name, the word eyes, but exclude all results that have the word naked in the title. Out of 133,000 results, only one is displayed.

Comments are hidden by default, allowing you to click them to see. But objectionable words will still be replaced by asterisks.

The post Protect Kids While Using YouTube appeared first on AppCertain.

In this age of social media and technology, endless new versions of smart phones, tablets, and mobile devices end up in the hands of children and young teenagers. The technology as well as the way children and young teenagers interact with these devices is ever evolving. Although apps on these devices can provide countless educational and entertainment benefits, parents must be aware of the potential risks as app technology evolves. A report released by the FTC in February showed that hundreds of popular apps were collecting data without parental consent. Important information that parents would need to determine what data is being collected from their children through apps, as well as how it will be shared and who will be able to access to it, is not currently provide by the app stores or the app developers.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently made amendments to the decade old COPPA Rule (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) to strengthen privacy for kids and information control for parents. The COPPA Rule governs how companies are allowed to collect data from children under the age of 13 through apps and websites. While it is encouraging that the FTC is trying to keep up with the changing technological landscape, the COPPA Rule applies to all child privacy protection across the web, not solely apps on mobile devices. The COPPA Rule amendments that do apply to apps stipulate that information that cannot be collected without parental consent include photos, videos, and geolocation, and that it can no longer be collected from children through a plug in by a third party. The problem remains however because the COPPA Rule applies to websites and apps however excludes the app stores that sell and distribute these apps from the responsibility to protect children from privacy violations by the apps. Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC, stated “At the FTC, one of our highest priorities is protecting children’s privacy, and parents deserve the tools to help them do that.” At AppCertain we are developing tools to keep parents informed and involved in their children’s mobile device activity in order to protect their privacy.

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The post FTC Amends COPPA to Include Apps appeared first on AppCertain.

Sign up here, if you haven’t yet, to start monitoring the apps installed on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Enroll the Device

After you sign up, use the link displayed and that you’ll get in an email.  This link will enroll your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with AppCertain’s service. Open the link on the device you’d like to monitor. Either open the link from the email, or type it into the Safari web browser (make sure you use “https” and the Safari web browser).

Follow the screens to install the security profile. This allows us to monitor the apps installed on the device.

The following warning is normal. The personal data is the unique ID of your device and the apps installed.  Check out the FAQ for more information.

Verify the profile is installed

Professor App will also send you an email when we have started monitoring your device.

Receive Updates!

That’s it! Now AppCertain will send you emails about any new applications installed!

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The post Monitor the applications installed on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch appeared first on AppCertain.

Step One: Install “Find My iPhone”

Find my iPhone must be installed on the device first. Even though this app has “iPhone” in the name, it can be installed on an iPad or iPod Touch as well.

Step Two: Browse to iCloud.com whenever you want to lock the device

Log in with the Apple account on the device you would like to lock. Click on the Find My iPhone icon.

Select the device button (top left corner)

Click “Lost Mode” (middle button)

Enter a new passcode to lock the device

This will immediately lock the device. You can confirm the device is locked by clicking on the “Lost Mode” button again. You may also want to turn off lost mode once the passcode has been set.

Unlocking the device

The only way to unlock it is to enter the passcode (remember to remove the passcode from Settings->General->Passcode Lock) or to change the passcode again in iCloud. The remote lock depends on using the apple account on the device. This means it will only work if your child does not know your Apple account information!

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The post Remotely lock an iPhone or iPad appeared first on AppCertain.