A Parent's Guide to Apps with Adult Content (Photo or Video)

1. Adult Content Risk in Mobile Apps – Is Your Child Being Exposed to Inappropriate Photos and Videos?
   • The Internet is full of content that you really don’t want your kids seeing. Whether you’re concerned about violence, pornography, or adult situations that your kids aren’t prepared to understand yet, you have a pretty big job ahead of you. Fortunately, you have a lot of help in protecting your kids while they browse at home. There are a lot of choices available for software to block adult sites and keep your kids from seeing things that they shouldn’t. However, you still have to worry about what they’re doing and seeing on mobile apps, where adult content risk is much higher.
   • That’s why it’s important to learn about adult content risk before you allow your child to download and use a new mobile app. You can find out which apps are at high risk for adult content (with frequent, easy access to adult-themed photos and video) and which ones have lower risk or no risk at all by searching our free directory for the app or apps your child wants to use. There are over 200,000 apps of concern in our directory. But these are of special concern because they may contain photos or videos shared by minors, or where minors are being asked to share them. So, it's very important to understand which apps your children are using, because it may not just be that the see some nudity. They may be being asked to produce some.
2. Potential Damage from Adult Content
   • This is an important topic for parents, as exposure to adult content too early can cause psychological damage to a child. If your child watches videos and sees images of realistic violence starting at an early age, they may become desensitized to this kind of material. They may think that it is common and normal, and they may act out in school or at home.
   • Likewise, children learn to communicate and interact with others by repeating the things they see and hear. If your child is exposed to excessive profanity at an early age, they have a much greater chance of using profanity in inappropriate ways in social situations and at school.
   • Introducing sexuality to a child at too early an age can create a lot of behavioral issues.
3. Talking to Your Kids about Adult Content Risk
   • If your child is interested in downloading an app that has a high adult content risk, you should talk to them about it. Ask them what they want to use the app for and what they want to look at on it.
   • If your child is already using an app and you see adult content, take the time to talk to your child about why that video or image wasn’t appropriate for them. You can then take a look at the app and find out if you can filter the content available to your child or if it’s time to say goodbye to that particular mobile app until your child is a bit older.
   • If you’re not sure about an app, before you download it (or before you delete it, if it’s already on your child’s phone or tablet), go ahead and look it up in our directory to find out what risks it holds and whether or not it’s appropriate for your child.