This article is subject to the Conquer with Na’Kole Disclaimer.
Happy Sunday!
What a week this has been! Let’s get into it!
TikTok
A Teen TikTok Star Opens up About How Her Father Fatally Shot Her Stalker
In 2020, a man showed up at (then) 13-year-old Ava Majury’s home and fired a shotgun through her front door. Before showing up, this 18-year-old young man messaged Ava on TikTok, Snapchat AND Instagram.
At first, Ava responded to these messages like she would any normal message… but the young man persisted. And persisted. And persisted.
The young man, Justin, was paying Ava’s friends for pictures of her. And even when she disconnected from those friends after finding out about their sinister behavior, Justin persisted.
From constantly messaging her on her socials to messaging her on Venmo and asking for “booty pics” in exchange for money, Justin persisted.
He planned to attack Ava. He even told one of her friends about it. When Ava’s dad found out about it, he shrugged it off at first – because “kids will be kids” and all of that.
And all of that is fine until it’s not fine. Justin persisted.
He persisted until he showed up at Ava’s residence and fired a shot through her door. Ava’s dad came to the door to see what had happened and saw Justin on the lawn. Authorities were called. In the end, Justin pointed a gun at Ava’s dad, and he shot and killed Justin.
Social media can be a dangerous place, and it is important to maintain open communication with your tween/teen about what is happening to/with them on social media. If they think they are going to get in trouble every time they mention something to you, they won’t mention it.
This week, I challenge you to have an open, honest, judgment and punishment-free conversation with your tween/teen about social media. Let me know how it goes!
Article
Facebook/Instagram
13-Year-Old Nia Whims Went to Jail After Someone Impersonated Her on Instagram and Made Threats
Eleven days. That’s how long Nia Whims was in jail. 11 days.
Nia had experienced a lot of bullying at school, and her mom requested a meeting with school administrators. The bullying continued, and Nia’s mom pulled her and enrolled her into another school.
Nia, trusting one of her friends at the new school, started talking about her experience at the previous school. That friend created an Instagram page impersonating Nia and began to make threats toward the previous school.
Because of those threats, Nia was arrested and put in a juvenile detention center. She was charged with “a second-degree felony for making a written threat to do bodily harm or commit an act of terrorism”.
It was later discovered that the other girl, a 12-year-old, was responsible. Nia was exonerated and the other girl was charged.
Articles
Snapchat
Snapchat Adds Real-Time Location Sharing
This may sound like a child predator’s playground, but I want you to think “buddy system”. You can share your location with friends for anywhere between 15 minutes to 8 hours. This could really come in handy at parties, on field trips and during out-of town events.
The great thing about this is that location can only be shared with individual friends. It will work the same way as when you start a road trip and you share your location/ETA with people you want to keep up with your trip.
This is a game-changer in terms of safety, and I will definitely keep my eyes on it to see if there are any holes in the programming that cause any problems.
As always, I’ll keep you posted!
Article
Roblox
Explicit Content: How Accessible Is It?
The BBC did some digging around on Roblox and they found rooms called “condo games” which had explicit sexual content.
Any time explicit rooms/games are found, they are usually taken down within a matter of minutes. And according to the research, the rooms are not all that common or accessible.
From the article:
“Matthew Johnson, director of education for Media Smarts in Ottawa, says a user would have to go out of their way looking for these condos in the gaming platform.
‘Your child, more importantly, is not going to just stumble across these links,’ he said.
In its statement, Roblox says the platform uses a combination of automated machine learning technology and moderators to remove condos.”
This is definitely something to keep on your radar as a parent, and if you don’t have The Cyber-Safe Survival Guide, I’d definitely grab it so that you can be fully prepared and safeguard your tween/teen!
Article
Wrapping It Up
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Na’Kole
Na'Kole Watson