Teen Dating Abuse, What should Parents Know about It

Signs of teen dating abuse:

• The first and foremost sign of dating abuse that could be observed in teenagers is cutting off with all the social contacts including their siblings and parents.
• Physically abused and forced intimacy that would lead to low confidence and there are chances that the person would start questioning his/her identity.
• The person would become hyperactive and short-tempered due to the mental trauma they are going through. The first detector would be the parents as they spend much time with their kids.
• Their daily productivity will start falling at school and college because they are not able to concentrate on their studies.
• Keeping herself/himself in the room for hours and not getting proactive about the reason without being asked.

Dating abuse methods:

These are some methods that are adopted by online predators to blackmail teenagers and make them mentally and physically weak due to the sensitive information they have grabbed either way.

• Consistently demanding for physical intimacy without considering the consequences.
• Force the person to send nudes and talk about illicit stuff on the call.
• Sending pornography and abusive text messages.
• Insisting activities such as calling late at night, asking to come out at midnight, etc.
• Blackmailing and threatening to expose in front of everyone.

From all of the above methods, digital abuse is very prominent because teenagers start using social and dating apps at an early age then they don’t even know about the consequences of befriending someone. The scammers can manipulate these teens in different ways, they can get friendly and fake to be in love and that relationship can ruin the teenager's life because the other person was only there for a reason, once the purpose is served they will start looking for methods to trap the teenagers and use them for their benefits.

According to a study, only 33% of the teens opened up about such relationships and rest were somehow managed by them in their way. So, as a parent, if you want to avoid such circumstances then you must act more proactively in protecting your teenage kid from such vultures. Getting the things done in the right way is always better as there is a saying “Prevention is better than cure”.

Signs of a teenager under dating abuse:

• Constant checking mobile phones and tracing all the social networks without permission.
• There would be extreme jealousy and the person would try to control all your activities from meeting a friend to going out with family members.
• They would always accuse of false allegations and let you down even when you made no mistake.
• Constantly hurting physically and mentally.

What can parents do when their kids are under dating abuse?

The first to tackle the situation is not to get hyper and easily talk to the kid without hurting their sentiments on what they have done.

This is a very common and most of the parents find it difficult to open up with their kids for no reason. But this should not be avoided just to maintain eye contact with your kids because it’s not them, it’s you. There is nothing wrong and at this tender age everyone makes mistakes but parents are designated to handle such situations and get their kids out of it as soon as possible.

• Talk to your kids about the situation they are facing and be gentle and firm so that they could open up completely and no hide anything.
• If the kid is asking for space, then let him/her think about the situation and then gently about all the happenings.
• Take them out for a walk and let them feel the nature because once they can feel free and relaxed, it would be wise to initiate a conversation.
• Seek legal advice or file a complaint if the solution is not in your hands but don’t let your kids suffer alone and encourage them to be fearless about it.
• Use a parental control app like FamiSafe to make sure you are tracking all the incoming and outgoing texts and calls on your kid’s mobile phone.

What is FamiSafe?

FamiSafe is an app that enables parents to track the online activity of their kids remotely on their mobile phone from anywhere. This app has some cool features that make your kid safe in your hands as you can track their social site messaging and app times with many more things that you can’t control conventionally. FamiSafe is specially designed to curb all the online threats and illicit activities that your kids might get involved in.

Features to help you:

• Explicit content detection

This feature enables you to detect any kind of malicious or suspicious content that your kid is sending or receiving. You can easily detect these messages on their social media profiles and normal texts.

• Web filter

If you are worried about the sites your kids are surfing these days then this feature would block those sites and they will not be able to access them anyhow. This is very helpful to protect your kids from pornography and other illegal websites that can lure them and ask for money.

• Activity report

See what your kids are spending time on their mobile phones and track the apps they are installing and uninstalling after using. The activity report timeline will provide you with all the data you want to see and make yourself comfortable at work.

So you are all set to check this app and install it on your device and observe your kids closely without being with them.

Here are some simple steps that you can follow and register for FamiSafe app on your device.

• Step 1: Register to track your kid’s activities on your phone

To register on FamiSafe you can either use the web portal or install the app. The app is available on Apple Store and Google Play Store, you can easily download it by typing “FamiSafe app” on the search bar of the store. You just need to fill in the credentials by allowing all the permissions.

• Step 2: Download the FamiSafe app

FamiSafe not only protects your kids from online threats but also provide you a free trial for 3 days(for users who sign up via app), in these 3 days you can simply check the credibility of this app and you would eventually use it further because you would have no choice after checking the features of this app.

The best part about this app is the single account that works on both phones, the one which you want to track and the other that you would be handling.

• Step 3: It’s time to set up the app on your kid’s phone.

Simply log in to the app and fill in the name and age of your kid after choosing the identity as a kid. The identity is important because in case you are handling the app on more than one device so it becomes easy to know which account belongs to your kid. Please make sure you are providing access to all the pop-ups that ask for your permission.

• Step 4: Now, it’s your turn to install the app on your phone to track your kid’s phone

Log into your account on your app and choose the identity as Parents. You can now start to keep track of your kid's device!

Our kids are not mature when they are in their teenage and there is a possibility that anybody can manipulate them. In this digital world, everybody likes to chat on social media platforms and without the authenticity of a person the kids start sharing everything from the school to the basic home conversations. This is not their fault, the age they are going through requires a lot of attention and care else they would be discussing the same thing outside with strangers. As a parent, you should always use digital technologies if you have a busy work schedule and spend as much time as you can with the kids and ask them about the daily routines and happenings around them. This would not only protect your kids but also give you a fair chance to make their upbringing stronger.