Over the past few years, chat apps have exploded in popularity. Children and young people, experiencing the thrill of the new, often forget the danger of the unknown. That's why KIK has become famous.
Kiki is a direct messaging app known worldwide, not only for its features, but also for how dangerous it is.
What is KIK?
KIK is, as previously stated, a direct messaging app, that prioritizes anonymity. You're probably thinking “Yes, it is anonymous, but you can also be anonymous on Instagram or any other social media app” but here's the deal: KIK does not require you to add any information whatsoever to create an account, such as your real name or phone number.
At the beginning, KIK tried to monetize the app through a set of unregistered cryptocurrencies. This almost causes the app to be shut down by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) but was saved by being acquired by another enterprise.
Kik isn't that different from many other messaging apps, but there are many reasons to be concerned about its popularity amongst teens and children.
The problem with KIK
Kik is terribly problematic for many reasons, to begin with:
- KIK’s hypocrite age limit: this is where the problems begin to appear. the app is listed as +17 but targets teens and children as young as 13, who are allowed to register despite declaring that they are between the ages of 13 and 17, or even younger. They make up for the majority of KIK’s audience.
- Anonymity: To begin with, anonymity shields users from the consequences of their harmful actions. Due to its secrecy policy, KIK has been used for many sorts of illicit and harmful activities, such as cyberbullying, harassment, extortion and child exploitation by sexual predators.
- Non-consensual contact with strangers: KIK allows users to direme-message anyone without asking the recipient first, letting minors receive explicit texts, pictures or videos. You can choose to stop receiving random messages in the app's settings but the default setting is to accept anyone's messages, known or unknown.
- Kik’s policy enforcement: Although KIK's user’s terms and conditions are similar to the ones on any other app, its anonymity, coupled with its deficient user tracking, makes for an useless, if not nonexistent, enforcement of their policies.
- Lack of supervision and regulations: Kik lacks a key feature, parental control.
- KIK's steamy content: like any other app, it allows for live-streaming. The thing is that the app recommends users the most popular ones, that tends to be sexually-charged.
KIK's Flirt!
On top of what was previously stated, KIK has an internal app called Flirt! Wich is nothing but a dating app. This Tinder-like feature lets you swipe left or right on anyone you're interested or uninterested.
The addition of an internal dating app, charges KIK with a sexual dynamic that almost every dating app has.
An anonymous direct messaging app, coupled that is heavily marketed Towards minors coupled with an internal dating apps makes up a recipe for disaster. Said minors could be lured into thinking they're talking to like-minded individuals of the same age, when in fact they could be a victim of grooming and catfishing by a sexual predator.
This was confirmed by a rather disturbing CBS report. A sexual predator who spent 10 years in prison for child molestation referred to the app as “a predator's paradise”
A brief overview of KIK:
Kik is definitely a dangerous app, both for adults and minors (specially minors). It is targeted towards children and teenagers but in fact its contents are far from safe. Its feeble policies and lack thereof coupled with an internal dating app and a huge lack of privacy is the last thing anyone would recommend to a minor. Overall, an app that was referred to as a “predator's paradise” by a convicted child molester deserves nothing but a 1/5 rating.
