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Why I kicked the Kik app to the curb

Why I kicked the Kik app to the curb

Last updated on: March 6, 2016 at 10:00 am by Sarah Lawrence Hinson

Why I kicked the Kik app to the curb 2016-03-05T12:50:23-05:00 Sarah Lawrence Hinson

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Social media, energy, and safe teens

Parents or carers of children – you have a precious child or children. For a moment I am going to ask you to imagine this scenario.

Once your child hits the teen years you are going to let this child connect with anyone they like by chatting with them through their bedroom window. Anyone the child chooses can look in this window and learn something personal about your child.

These people are totally free to use this information in any way they desire. People looking in can be male, female, any sexual orientation, old, young, whatever, any social background, they may have a criminal record, they may not.*

They can influence your child by chatting with them any time they feel like it and even take the relationship to the next level and ask to meet your kid somewhere. And you are OK with that.

What’s more, you pay for this service monthly and it goes on at all hours of the day, even late into the night, with your silent endorsement. And it affects and changes your child’s brain during one of the most vulnerable periods in their young lives when they are becoming teenagers.

*By the way, no judgement on sexual orientation, age, or anything else; I’m just creating an example to demonstrate something. Go with me here.

What??

By now I’m hopeful that you are gazing at this post with a somewhat dumbfounded expression. What on earth is this woman going on about?

Well, I’m talking about chat room apps. You see, I’m an energy worker of over 16 years standing, so I see, feel, sense and know our personal energy field as something that is real, as real as the chair you are sitting on reading this, as real as the drink you may be sipping, the shoes you are wearing, and so on.

My clients know it too. They connect with me remotely to have readings and energy sessions and can feel what is happening in a number of ways, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle.

And I see, feel, sense and know a connection via social media as an energy connection, it’s just as real to me as a connection made through your kid’s bedroom window without your knowledge. But as a care provider or parent in your right mind — you would never allow that, right?

Who is safe and who isn’t – virtually or otherwise

When I was a kid I definitely had an unusual awareness of energy even then. I ‘knew’ which people I should not go near as a child because quite frankly they were either sexually unbalanced or quite unsafe. How did I know? I got strong gut feelings about their bad intentions. More importantly, I didn’t ignore them or ‘act nice’ because I was told to by adults.

The old guy who leered at all us girls on bikes over his garden gate on the way home from school was a definite no-no. Us girls at school had actually discussed one English teacher and we all knew very well never to go into the supply cupboard when he was there, he even flirted inappropriately with us in class time. So that was an obvious learning and not just noticed by me.

The guy my friend babysat for though, that was worse. I used to go and babysit with her because I knew something was up. In the end she told me he would force kisses on her and grab at her when he took her to the girl guides group. Yep this guy was the leader of that group, too. Every parent’s nightmare.

I never babysat for him on my own because something already ‘told’ me this. By the way I did tell a few adults about this guy at the time but they all talked me down. It can be hard when you know energy at age 13.

So some people may notice unbalanced or weird vibes at age 12 or 13, others may not. What does this have to do with apps and your kid’s bedroom window, you may ask?

Enter the smartphone, tablet and chat room apps

During the last couple of years it’s been useful to add a cell phone to my kids’ school belongings. I can contact them during sports time, after school activities or to communicate a change of plan.

I always said ‘No chat room apps’ and until a few weeks ago all was well.

Then I discovered both girls (and a group of their friends at school) had the Kik app on their phones. My two didn’t seem to think that the Kik app was a chatroom app, but once I looked I realized that it was not a good thing.

Apart from the additional drama these apps can lend to a young teen’s life (and their parent’s lives) these apps are dangerous. Back to the bedroom window scenario again. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can figure these apps out and be contacting your child on them without you knowing. After all, my kids figured out how to put the app on their phones and set up a chat room of their own without any help from an adult.

So their phones were grounded for a month and I kicked ‘Kik’ to the curb

I’ve redefined the energetic boundaries for my children. Those phones (they have tracphones) are no longer their property. They are my property and they are simply borrowing them for their own convenience. At a moment’s notice I have the right to remove the phones and review any content on there. And after 8pm at night the phones are recharging in the kitchen until they need them for school again the next day. And that is that.

I feel like I was saved, somehow. The same week I took the phones away and removed Kik, almost on the day of, a friend called me and told me about this article. A 13 year old girl was stabbed to death after meeting an 18 year old man on the Kik app. Read more about the story here>>

A 13 year old has died because she used the Kik app and didn’t ‘know’ bad energy

I have so much sorrow and empathy for this girl’s mom. Once again, it’s a parent’s nightmare. So many of us get so busy and don’t get a chance to keep up with the details of our children’s lives, let alone what they put on their phones.

At age 13 most kids take things very literally and don’t have an awareness of people’s bad intentions.

You, however, as an adult, do have some awareness. So please send Kik to the curb until they are older, along with Snapchat and anything else you can find. Your child’s life could depend on it.

Image by Pixabay

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