Kik Review: The Good, The Bad, & The Unpredictable

This is a short but comprehensive, opinionated review of the well popular mobile phone application known as "Kik".  For those of you that are not familiar with this application that can be downloaded to your children's and teen's smartphones, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the app.  Kik is an instant messaging application that allows someone to message another "kik user" for free if the recipients have the application installed on their phones as well. When I first heard of kik from someone, I asked her why would I want to "kick" her and didn't know until she explained to me how kik works.

The issue I personally have with kik is that anyone can download and access this program and for young teenagers and kids, this is an app you want your kids to stay away from until they turn at least 18. The application itself, I have no issues with as I use kik to chat with friends that do not have texting plans on their phones. The only issue that bothers me is how easily accessible this app can be by kids. Although some apps have age restrictions,  kids can easily lie about their age to bypass the age restrictions and this is very unfortunate as they could be exposed to a variety of adult content that is posted and used within kik. 

As most active kik users are aware, especially females is that they are bombarded by young guys and much older MEN that could be old as their grand parents, asking for provocative and nude photos of these girls and then post them over the internet for the world to see and time and time again, you'll hear in the news how preteen and teen girls have pictures leaked online because of applications as these. Again, I'm not berating kik as it's a great application, but just not appropriate for kids and young teens.

In addition,  it's not just males that are initiating and asking for provocative pictures, but females are also asking the males for the exact same thing. If you don't believe me,  take a look at the screenshots I've took when I had kik in the past as it speaks for itself. It's unfortunate that some people attempt to exploit others and abuse a good app but as the saying goes: "to each of it's own".
Screenshots from previous kik conversations:

High School Teen Suspended for Asking Miss America to Prom

Browsing the internet, I tend to find news articles and stories that stands out to me or could be categorized as an "interesting" story.  This morning, I came across this news article on USA Today, that stated that a high-school teenager was suspended for asking Miss America to his high school prom.  After reading more into the story as the title seemed to immediately capture my attention, I found out the true reason why this student was suspended.  The school administration had previously found out of this student's intentions before the situation took place at the school assembly and requested for him not to do this action. Unfortunately, the student asked Miss America anyway to his high-school prom in front of the entire school assembly and even taking a step further by approaching her to give her a plastic flower as an offering.  

As a result, the school's disciplinary action for the student was 3-days of in-school suspension. Although I can't agree 100% with the decision of the school, the fact of the matter is, that this student still broken the rule of ignoring what was advised of him, which was not to ask Miss America this question and broken rules must follow with consequences regardless. I would have felt that an after school detention for 1 day would have been more appropriate than a 3-day in school suspension.  The student also showed remorse for his actions and apologized for disrupting the event. There are plenty of students that intentionally cause problems in schools and shows no remorse for their actions, but can receive a "lighter sentence" if you would say if they are the relative or child of a school administrator or staff member at the same school for example.  To anyone that think otherwise about the statement of students being related to school staff members not being true, you may need to think about that in its entirety.  

Getting back to the situation of this student, I cannot agree that the school's decision was not justified as rules are rules and must be followed or deal with the consequences. However, in my opinion, I feel that the sentencing should have been a little lighter such as an after school detention session or community service at the school for a day. 

Link to full story from USA Today: 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/18/teen-suspended-miss-america-prom/7888049/

I feel sympathy for the student and probably would have done the same thing if I was in high-school and had the chance. However, rules are rules and if one student gets away with breaking the rules, then others will follow and expect the same. That is when chaos starts to happen.