If you are a parent you may be worried about your child and their use of technology. You’ll be happy to know that there are some safe messaging services designed for kids. Here are our 5 best texting apps for kids to help effectively communicate with family and friends
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Hello! It’s Frankie here again wanting to give you some information about safe texting and messaging apps for your children. We are going to look at some text apps that you can control and monitor.
First of all, let’s start with good manners.
If this is your first time on my blog let me introduce myself: I am 36 years old and I’m a professional amateur in that ugly business of social media and computer security. More specifically, I help all those frustrated moms and dads who call themselves digital illiterates to understand something about this confusing digital world so their kids don’t get in trouble.
Back to us.
You will see who your child is texting and what they are saying in their messages. They will still feel cool texting their friends but you will have complete control over their usage.
You are going to learn about the safety of these texting apps for kids and how you can control them and monitor their use.
By knowing about these different apps you are going to learn how to keep your children safe online. They will be able to talk to their friends and you will be able to make sure they are only speaking to those that you have approved.
When you are looking for a texting and messaging app for your kids it is important you select the right app.
You need to make sure that the app is safe. You do not want any spyware or access to inappropriate items from this app.
You are going to want to find an app that will allow you to have control. You will be able to see who your children are and text and make sure it is only their friends.
Let’s not waste more time and get right to it.
Frankie’s Take:
You are going to read about the top five texting apps for your children. You will learn information about each app, how to use them, and the pros and cons. This will allow you to make an informed decision about which texting app is right for your kids.
5 Safe Texting Apps For Kids to Safely Communicate with Family
You do NOT want to have an app that will allow strangers to message them. You are going to want an app that encrypts the information that is being sent.
When it comes to texting apps privacy is going to be one of the most important features.
This will allow you to monitor their activity and keep their information from being seen by a third party. You are also going to want an app that will allow parental controls.
There are privacy levels that you can set so strangers will not be able to message your child and send them requests. This will help reduce the risk of using these apps. You will be able to add specific people and watch who your child is talking to.
Here are our best chatting apps for kids to help effectively communicate with family and friends.
✅ Pros
- Parents need to approve all contacts.
- There are no private messaging features or hidden chats.
- A contact can be deleted at any time. Only parents will have full control to do this.
❌ Cons
- Parents cannot control the behavior of other children. This app can be used as a platform for bullying.
- Facebook is the gateway to the internet. The account needs to be carefully monitored to make sure the child is not accessing other areas.
- A parent needs to be aware of the friends of the friends their kid is talking to and make sure they do not have access to the account.
This app was created by Facebook to be used by kids. No Facebook account is needed. Kids like this app because they can use emojis, take funny pictures with filters, and share and create videos with their friends.
Why it is safe
There are many parent controls on this site. Parents need to approve every contact and they can delete them at any time. There are no hidden or private messages. Parents can also set a sleep mode so the kids cannot use the app at specific times.
How to install
This app can be downloaded from the Play Store for Android devices. It can also be used on the iOS system.
Price
Free
Bottom Line: Facebook Messenger Kids can allow a kid to have access to all the cool features and parents will have full control of their platform.
2. JusTalk Kids
✅ Pros
- Strangers will not be able to message the kid.
- Parents will set all passwords and security information.
- The site will not sell any information about the child including their id.
❌ Cons
- It has been reported there were some bugs in the software that affect the usage
- Group chats can lead to trouble with socialization and kids bullying each other
- Kids can record videos so parents need to carefully monitor the content they are filming and sending to others.
This is an app that allows kids to send messages and make video calls. The app allows kids to play games together and can talk to several kids at a time.
Why it is safe
Parents will have access to the entire account. Kids will not get friend requests and strangers will not be able to call or message them. The parent needs to approve all contacts.
How to install
This app can be installed on a tablet or smartphone (iOS or Android). You will need to download it and set up an account for your child.
Price
Free
Bottom line: JusTalk is an app for kids that will allow them to have fun messaging friends and family. The app has a privacy setting and parents have full control over everything from friends to passwords.
3. Fennec Messenger
✅ Pros
- Parents have control over all friend requests.
- The app can locate the child in an emergency
- The app is fun for kids to use and they can express their creativity with the pictures.
❌ Cons
- This app allows more independence than other models so extra monitoring is needed.
- Parents need to monitor all video content.
- The use of a smartwatch and activity on the watch will need to be carefully monitored.
This app will allow the child to message their friends while allowing parents to have control over who they are talking to.
There are stickers and images that the kids can play with. They can also make pictures on this app and send them to their friends and family.
Why it is safe
Parents need to approve everything that the child speaks to. They cannot be contacted by strangers and all friend requests will go to the parent. If there is an emergency this app can locate the child’s smart device. A parent can also shut the app down during certain times of the day.
How to install
A parent will need to download the app. It can be found in the Play Store or Apple Store. It can even be used with smartwatches.
Price
Free
Bottom line: Fennec Messenger will allow a child to play with their friends and interact with them while carefully monitoring their usage and preventing strangers from messaging them.
4. Hangouts
✅ Pros
- Parents need to approve all people that contact their kids.
- They can manually add friends and family members.
- There are advanced privacy settings so the accounts cannot be found by strangers.
❌ Cons
- Entire chat conversations can be deleted.
- This messenger was not designed for children so it is important to use the family link
- A kid may be able to set up an account with their own Gmail so this needs to be watched.
Hangouts were not designed for use by children. Google does have a family link where a parent can set up an account for their child and have additional control over this account.
Why it is safe
A parent needs to control the privacy and they can set the privacy to “not send me invitations”. Strangers will not be able to contact the kid. Messages cannot be deleted or hidden. You can set up the contacts so they will be able to talk to their friends and family.
How to install
A Google account is needed to install this service. You will need to set up a Gmail account to use.
Price
Free
Bottom line: Hangouts can be safely used by a kid if the parents set up the privacy settings and monitor how they use this app.
5. Star Messenger
✅ Pros
- There is no phone number needed so your child will not appear in search results.
- Friend requests are not sent.
- There is a pin that will allow the child to log into their account. You will set the pin.
❌ Cons
- There are group chats that are not always positive.
- You will still need to monitor the content that is being sent in the chat.
- You will need to keep track of the pin and make sure your child cannot change it.
This is a service that will allow children to talk to friends and family members. They can have access to different emojis and send messages with some personalized style.
Why it is safe
This ad does not need a phone number to set up. People will not be able to search for a child or send them friend requests. Parents will be able to set up who their child takes to and has contact with.
How to install
This app can be downloaded and a parent will need to set up the account or the child.
Price
Free
Bottom line: This is an app where your child can safely talk to their friends. You do not have to worry about strangers sending them messages or message requests since this app is private.
How to keep your kids safe online
I want your child to have freedom but you want to keep them safe online. If you are looking to keep your children safe I would highly recommend that you use a parental control app.
This will allow you to monitor their activity and see what they are doing on the messaging sites and other online activities.
This app will block adult content and will allow you to see what your kids are doing online. You can set times for internet usage.
You can also monitor all of their activities.
I have looked at several parental control apps and have found that mSpy is the best. This is the most used app to monitor child’s activity around the world. You will have full access to what your child is doing on their cell phone.
mSpy is the best because it is easy to install and you will have full access to the activity that your child is doing. You can see text messages and other messages that they are sending and who they are going to.
You will be able to check the call history and have access to all of the apps on the phone. You will also be able to track the location of the device using GPS.
You can install mSpy on iOS, Android, and iPads. You will be able to monitor your child no matter what system they are using.
There are different packages you can select from when using mSpy. You can purchase a monthly membership for $8.33 for basic monitoring. If you want to purchase a yearly membership it is going to cost around $199.99.
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It is the same price for the Android and the iOS monitoring systems.
You need to keep your children safe online. The best parental control app is mSpy because you will have unlimited access to all of the activity your child is doing on their phone including all messages and searches.
Conclusion
If your child is looking to have a messaging app some are safe to be used by children. The best messaging apps are
- Facebook Messenger Kids
- Justalk Kids
- Fennec Messenger
- Hangouts set up with Google Family
- Star Messenger
Even with these services you will need a parental control app to monitor all online activity of your kids and make sure they are safe.
These apps will make sure they are not able to access adult content or speak to strangers. The best parental control app is mSpy because you will have full access to your child’s phone and all the activities they are doing on this phone.
It is easy to install and they will not know that it has been downloaded on their device. There is also GPS tracking so you can monitor where your child and their device are going.
However, if you have any doubts or questions you need to speak to your child about what they can do to stay safe online. You need to tell them of the dangers of internet usages and if you feel they are not safe you may need to take their device for the time being.
If you have any questions or need additional information leave a comment on this post. You can also follow me on Instagram and Youtube and contact me with any questions or suggestions.
Love,
Frankie Caruso
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