Is This App Safe for My Child?

Online Game Platform

Roblox is a platform where kids can play millions of user-created games. While many games are fun and educational, the open nature of the platform means children can encounter inappropriate content or interact with strangers.

Battle Royale Game

Fortnite is a popular online game where players compete in battle royale matches. While the cartoon-style graphics are less realistic, the game involves shooting other players and has voice chat with strangers.

Messaging Platform

Discord is a messaging platform popular with gamers and communities. Users can join servers, send messages, and participate in voice and video calls. The open nature of many servers poses risks for younger users.

Social Media / Short Video

TikTok is a short-video platform where users create and share videos. The algorithm-driven feed can expose children to a wide range of content, from entertaining to potentially harmful.

Sandbox Game

Minecraft is a creative sandbox game where players build structures, explore worlds, and survive. It's widely considered one of the safer games for kids, especially in single-player or private server mode.

Video Platform

YouTube is the world's largest video platform. While it hosts educational and entertaining content, the recommendation algorithm can lead children down rabbit holes of inappropriate content.

Social Media / Messaging

Snapchat is a messaging app known for disappearing messages and stories. The ephemeral nature of content makes it harder for parents to monitor, and features like Snap Map can share your child's location.

Social Media

Instagram is a photo and video sharing platform owned by Meta. While popular for sharing creative content, it can expose children to unrealistic body images, cyberbullying, and contact from strangers.

Messaging

WhatsApp is an encrypted messaging app used by billions worldwide. While useful for family communication, group chats and contact from unknown numbers pose risks for children.

Online Social Game

Among Us is a popular social deduction game where players work together on a spaceship while trying to identify imposters. It's relatively safe but does include in-game chat with strangers.

Messaging

Telegram is a messaging app known for large public groups, channels, and light moderation. Its focus on privacy and minimal content controls means children can easily find or be exposed to inappropriate material and strangers.

PC Game Store and Platform

Steam is the largest store and platform for PC games. It sells everything from family games to mature titles and includes chat, community forums, and user content, so children can meet strangers and reach adult material.

Social Media

X, formerly Twitter, is a public social media platform where anyone can post text, images, and video. Content is largely unfiltered, and children can easily encounter explicit material, hostile arguments, and strangers.

Social Media / Image Sharing

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where users save and browse images and ideas. Much of it is harmless inspiration, but search and recommendations can surface mature images or content about dieting and self-harm.

Messaging

Kik is a messaging app that lets users chat using only a username, without sharing a phone number. That anonymity has made it popular for meeting strangers and is a known avenue for grooming and inappropriate contact with minors.

Reading and Writing / Social

Wattpad is a platform where users read and write stories, including huge amounts of fan fiction. Much of it is creative and harmless, but a large share of stories contains explicit sexual or violent content that is easy for children to reach.

Social Media

Facebook is a long-running social network owned by Meta, used for posts, groups, messaging through Messenger, and Marketplace. Children can face contact from strangers, scams, and exposure to mature content in feeds and groups.

Live Streaming Platform

Twitch is the biggest live-streaming platform, where people broadcast themselves playing games, chatting, making music, and more. Kids love watching their favorite gamers in real time, but because streams are live and unscripted, content can turn crude or inappropriate at any moment, and the scrolling chat beside each stream is full of strangers.

AI Chatbot / Companion

Character.AI is an app where users chat with lifelike AI 'characters' — everything from anime heroes and celebrities to therapist-style companions and romantic partners. Kids are drawn to the always-available, personal-feeling conversations. Following lawsuits tied to teen self-harm, the company announced in late 2025 that it is ending open-ended chat for users under 18 and adding age checks, so this is a fast-changing safety area parents should watch closely.

Social VR Platform

VRChat is a social virtual-reality world where people meet as custom avatars, explore user-made rooms, and talk by live voice. Kids love the freedom to hang out, role-play, and build. But public worlds are largely unmoderated, most people your child meets are strangers speaking in real time, and adult and suggestive content is easy to wander into.

Social VR Game Platform

Rec Room is a free social platform where players meet as cartoon avatars to play mini-games, build their own rooms, and hang out. It works in VR and on regular screens, and its bright, playful style attracts a lot of younger kids. The games themselves are mild, but the main draw — chatting and playing with strangers in public rooms — is where the real concerns lie.

Kids Messaging (Parent-Controlled)

Messenger Kids is Meta's messaging app built specifically for children, with parents in control. Kids can text, video call, and send playful stickers and photos, but only to contacts a parent has approved — there are no open friend requests, ads, or in-app purchases. It is one of the few 'social' apps genuinely designed to be safe for young children under close parental oversight.

Mobile Multiplayer Game

Brawl Stars is a fast, colorful multiplayer game from Supercell (the makers of Clash of Clans) where players battle in short 3-versus-3 matches and other quick modes. The cartoon style and bite-sized games make it hugely popular with kids. The gameplay is mild, but chat with strangers and heavy pressure to spend on Gems and Brawlers are the things parents should watch.

VR Multiplayer Game

Gorilla Tag is a wildly popular free VR game where players are cartoon 'monkes' who run, climb, and play tag by swinging their arms — no controllers needed. The movement is simple and joyful, which is why it's a favorite with kids. The game content is mild, but it's online and multiplayer, so open voice chat with strangers, plus the physical realities of VR, are the real things parents should think about.