House party: a video call app review for parents

List of Dangers of Misuse of HouseParty App:

1. There are many safety features of this app which adults may misuse and happen to cause depression, self-unworthiness feelings, anxiety, worry, concern in adults etc.
2. Groups are made for communicating with each other, and those members are added who are preferred ones. So, if one user is excluded from the chat and s/he is aware of it, self-doubt, concerns, anxiety, and feeling of unworthiness could raise in your children.
3. If your kids are under 19 years, they are at risk of sextortion, mental and psychological torture, and depression. They may get bullied online by senior people at HouseParty, and dragged into groups and discussions they are inappropriate for them.
4. Your kids may be trapped in the notion of missing out if they are not invited to any of the group calls. Consequently, your kid gets bullied and hit by the attitude of their friends online.
5. Your kid may get addicted to using the app, and lose productivity. Kids may lose their interest in their schools, start preferring clothes, accessories, and kinds of devices which are not good for them.
6. Due to continuous talks and sharing of different stuff through group phone calls, our kids will start depending on their friends and friends of friends emotionally. So, your child will start detaching from you.
7. There is also a possibility that your child will speak to unknown people whom they do not know. if your child befriends strangers on HouseParty Video Call App, drug abuse is the most common influence of wrong “strangers” on innocent kids. HouseParty Video Call App might ruin your kid’s life.
8. There are chances that children can get trapped into big problems if they start dating a predator and a molester online. Once a few months into the relationship, your child can be dominated by his/her senior partner. There are many other hazards of a bad relationship. Emotional abuse, psychological abuse, molestation, violence, etc. are some of the risk factors you must dread. You must be very careful unless they reach the age of maturity. So, you must monitor who your child talks, meets, or has a relationship.
9. Your kid may be communicating “things” they otherwise must not. They happen to communicate because they are aware of the fact that these talks will remain only among their friends. So, you must be worried about what they talk about, how they talk, and who they talk.
10. It is also possible to take a screenshot of the communication or send a link to their profiles through a text message. So, unknown people can take misuse this feature of the app and share the “private group” communications with others on the App. Your child may earn a bad reputation apparently for no reason.
11. They may want to just do anything to conform and get in. Consequently, your child may behave differently, become peevish, snap, and get irritated at everything you may say. There are other dangers of the HouseParty Video Call App too which you should be aware of.

Here are HouseParty App Reviews from parents that will answer is HouseParty App Safe or not:

HouseParty App Review by Christi F. (Parent):

DRAMA

“As a mother of middle school girls, I believe this app should be limited to a more mature audience. This app gave these girls that are going through changes that cause them to be impulsive and not always kinda platform to throw verbal punches at each other. I have a policy of "parent approval" for any and all apps but as you all know there is the occasional app downloaded without permission and we had one of those with this app. It caused problems that have resulted in the school's involvement. It is very ugly. Middle school kids are not ready for this.”

Source: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/houseparty-group-video-chat/user-reviews/adult

HouseParty App Review by Superhermom (Parent):

Anxiety builder, potential as a tool for bullying, sexual content

“This app is an anxiety builder. You need to be invited to the group to chat and many times the group excludes a frequent member to talk about the person they excluded. This is done frequently and many Times intently generating self-doubt and a lot of anxiety. The ones who are not invited to the party know or at least fear that they’re not included because the group is talking about them. That fear of missing out, in the adolescent mind, multiplies in infinite branches, causing a lot of social anxiety, distorted body image, a need to be connected all the time otherwise you’ll be the target of the gossip (if you’re not invited to the chat, you’re the one who is the target of gossip in the party room. That is hypnotizing. The addiction potential to the screen increases exponentially with the adrenaline and the teen hormones. I do not recommend this app at all. It’s a disgrace. Yes, there is always a potential for the good. But you can be sure that this not how it’s been used.”

Source: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/houseparty-group-video-chat/user-reviews/adult

From the HouseParty App Reviews, we may infer that there are no parental controls available in the HourseParty App. So, you should have controls of your own if you want to save your child from this cyber-bullying app.

1. You may sit with your child, and try to make them understand what is good for them and what is bad for them. Having a good talk is one of the best solutions.
2. There are parental controls on your child’s phone. You may want to use them to keep track of what they are doing online.
3. As a responsible and caring parent, you can remotely control what your child is doing through a Parent Control App. One of the best Parental Control App is FamiSafe.

FamiSafe Parental Control App

FamiSafe is one of the best applications to choose for monitoring and keeping a check on your child’s activities online and offline. FamiSafe helps you keep your child protected from the evils of the humans and evils of the technology. Young minds should interact in the live world, not the online world. They must learn different things offline from their parents, siblings, neighbors, and pets just the way we did. FamiSafe helps you accomplish this goal with its various exceptional features.

Features of FamiSafe:

Following are some of the main features of the FamiSafe Parental Control App:

a. Location Tracking and Geofencing

Nowadays, school is not the only place your kid attends. Your child needs to attend extra tuition classes, learn karate, swimming, etc. FamiSafe Geofencing and LocationTracking help you to know if your child has reached all places on time or has gone somewhere else.

b. Usage of App and Blocker

Parents have been empowered by FamiSafe virtually to manipulate the usage of apps that their kids use. They may allow half-hour of usage, or block inappropriate apps from downloading.

c. Summary of Daily Activities

This app also sends you daily activities details to you, including their browsing history, app usage and downloading history, messaging history on different apps etc.

d. Explicit Content Detection

FamiSafe can detect explicit content on YouTube, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, and other apps as well. You can keep “keywords” which your child must not be using. If your child uses them, you are alerted by the FamiSafe.

e. Suspicious Photos

FamiSafe can detect dangerous and suspicious photos in the kid’s mobile, and parents are warned about any suspicious activity such as sexting, sextortion, group sexting etc.

f. Screen Time:

With the help of FamiSafe, you can set the schedule of screen time. If your child uses it more than the allowed time, the device gets automatically locked.

g. Web Filter and Browser History:

With FamiSafe’s Web Filter categorization, it becomes easier for parents to filter harmful websites for your kids. FamiSafe also fetches browser history, letting you know about your kid’s every little detail.

Conclusion:

HouseParty App is a destructive application for youths. In order to prevent your kid from accessing it, you can download FamiSafe and remain assured that your kids will be safe from the harmful effects of HouseParty App’s evils. There are always good sides to everything. It is lastly upon you to decide is HouseParty App Safe or not.