State officials in New Jersey are warning parents that sexual predators are using as many as 19 different apps to lure underage girls and boys for sexual activity.
“The New Jersey Regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which is led by the New Jersey State Police, and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, recently arrested 24 people who allegedly used a slew of apps that are well known to parents and children.”1
The apps include the following:
- Chat apps: Kik, Skout, Grindr, Whisper, Omegle, Tinder, Chat Avenue, Chat Roulette, Wishbone, Live.ly, Musical.ly, Paltalk, Yubo, Hot or Not, Down, and Tumblr.
- And gaming apps Fortnite, Minecraft, and Discord
(While some of the apps have an 18+ age requirement, users are able to enter a birthdate that’s older if need be. And some only require the user to be 13.)
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Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal urged parents to familiarize themselves with the apps and have conversations with their children about sharing information with strangers:
“It is a frightening reality that sexual predators are lurking on social media, ready to strike if they find a child who is vulnerable. To counter that threat, we are working collaboratively and aggressively across all levels of law enforcement to apprehend these sex offenders. We want child predators to know that we are on social media too – and the child they target may be the undercover officer who puts them in handcuffs.”1
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New Jersey State Police Officer, Col. Patrick Callahan, said that while predators use precaution to avoid detection online they are no doubt frequenting “social media sites with the sole purpose of targeting unsuspecting children,”1 so parents should “closely monitor their child’s online activity.”1
