What is Kik?

Kik is a free-to-download messaging app specifically targeted at teens aged 13 upwards. It sends and receives messages, photos, videos, sketches or other content over the internet connection of a users registered account. It also facilities group chats (with up to 49 other users), anonymous chat and promoted chats - where users follow and chat with different brands in music, entertainment etc.

Downloading and Verification

The app is available on all iOS, Android or Windows Phone devices, including phones and tablets, even Kindles. Setting up an account does not require a phone number, just a unique username, an email address and you're good to go.

During set up, the app does ask for a birthday to confirm age is above 13 years, however this can easily be side-stepped by younger users with a little fibbing. If as a parent you discover your underage child has a Kik account, you can submit a deactivation request to support@kik.com - include your child's kik username and age in your message.

Kik Registration and Usernames

The app requires users to create a unique username which can be shared with friends or on other social media outlets. However if your teen is using the app, you should encourage them NOT to share their username on other social networks such as twitter so that their username does not become public.

The app also allows users to connect with people in their phone book/contact list who already have a Kik account. This option can also be turned off by going to settings > chat settings > and turning off address book matching. 

By turning off address book matching, your child can only talk to people who knows their username.

You can choose to share your username or you can share what is called a 'Kik code', which is a unique bar code others can scan with their smart device and gain direct access to a chat with you.

Although Kik recommends users should not use their first or last name within their unique username, they do request that you share your first and last name to show up as your 'display name' in chats.

This means that if your child's unique username were to somehow get out into the public domain, people who engage them in conversation within the app will then also have access to their full name and their profile picture.

Other Features of Kik parents need to be aware of

• Kik also hosts group chats that can accommodate up to 49 individual users. If your child were to join a group or a fan club then their username would be readily available and accessible for any member of the group to message your child directly.
• Users can also hold video conversations within the app with up to 6 users at the one time.
• Additional Internal Apps are available through it's browers such as 'Match & Chat and Flirt' which work in a similar way to tinder which matches users by age and gender however there is no way of verifying that users are the age/gender they say they are so parents should ensure their teens do not use these additional internal apps.
  
  

Parental Controls

So, if the app is specifically targeted at a teenage audience, surely the app's parental controls must be strong, right? Wrong.

The safety FAQ's on the Kik website offer very few solutions to help protect kids using the app. There are no preventative measures to help shield children from unwanted messages, photos or videos.

Messages from strangers are filtered into a separate 'New Chats' folder and the content of the message is blurred until it is clicked open. Without the proper supervision or guidance, many child users may not know the dangers in viewing such messages.

If and when your child eventually does come across unsavory messages, the Kik app again falls short of any meaningful measures to stop the messages from getting through: "The first thing you can do is ask your teen not to respond. Users who send these messages will quickly get bored once they realize that they won’t receive a response."

Users can be blocked from sending messages but with your child's unique uisername already in possession, the culprits can easily set up a new account and start messaging again.

It isn't possible to make your child's Kik account completely private. The help section of their website suggests adopting a username that is hard to guess, being very careful with whom your child shares their username with and to be wary of groups as all group members will then be able to privately message your child.

How to Stop Your Child from Using Kik

First, you will need to assess which devices your child has access to. Then, using each of the devices built in parental control settings, you can pin point Kik as an app that you do not want installed on your child's device. On Apple devices, the parental controls are called 'restrictions' and on Android they are referred to as 'filters'.

According to The Late Late Show, Kik had announced that they were "committed to spend $10 Million improving the app's security". We will keep an eye out for any updates. In the meantime, we advise that you keep a close eye on what your child is doing on their smart devices at all times.

How does Kik make Money?

The app boasts of its unique access to 13-24 year olds for big name brands such as CNN, Target and Yahoo! to advertise and exert influence over this age range in a way they were unable to before.