According to ABC News, the use of secret mobile apps by teenagers to hide texts, images and videos is becoming an increasing cause for concern for parents as well as officials.
A Louisiana parent Kristin Pinsonat had caught her sixteen-year-old son using the app. She said, “I was shocked to find that Anthony had installed an app to hide files. They can do anything they want, and it’s all locked with a passcode.”
Anthony admits that “Basically, I was hiding from my parents. And it was stupid, yeah.”
Pamela Casey, a county district attorney in Alabama, posted a video on Facebook to warn parents about such apps. “I encourage you to look at your child’s phone,” she said. “If one child knows about it, many children know about it.”
Editor-in-chief of Yahoo Tech Magazine, Dan Tynan said the apps could look like ordinary functions such as a calculator, but when users entered a secret password they had access to hidden files.
He added that \”“Adults can keep their children from using such apps by turning off their ability to install apps without parental approval. The problem with these apps is they allow kids to hide their cyber-lives from their parents, and sometimes the things they are hiding can harm them, ”.