Ada County Sheriff’s Office deputies continue to urge parents to talk their kids about being careful with how they interact with strangers online – especially on the never-ending stream of new social media apps that seem to pop up every day.
It is not uncommon for our deputies to get reports about adults sending creepy messages to kids on apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat – or any program that allows direct messaging. We can now add TikTok to the list.
Kuna Police are investigating a case where someone tried to convince a 10-year-old girl last week to share her family’s bank account information on TikTok, a popular video sharing app popular with young kids and teens.
The girl got an unsolicited message from someone claiming to be an adult male who said he needed a “sugar baby” and promised to “spoil her with gifts and a weekly allowance” if she would share her parent’s ATM and bank card information.
The girl exchanged a few messages with the man and then showed her parents, who called us right away.
These types of scams are hard to stop, since they are done over the internet, which means the people responsible could be hundreds of miles away. They also seem to be able to identify kids and other vulnerable people by analyzing content posted to those sites.
So the best way to combat those scams is to be a good user. That means parents should be current on what kind of apps the kids are using and talking with them often about how they are using them.
Sometimes it isn’t so obvious if the newest, coolest app has a direct messaging component. TikTok is pretty much a lip-syncing app, and when you sign up, the account defaults to a public setting. Parents should just assume most social networking apps have messaging capabilities.
Kids should make their accounts private and only interact with people they know – and delete and block messages from people they don’t know — especially if those people appear to be adults or are asking for something.
Check out https://www.justice.gov/usao-id/online-and-texting-safety-tips-kids-and-parents for more online safety tips.