Protecting Your Child from Telegram Sexting: Risks, Signs, and Prevention Strategies
Sexting is becoming more common among kids and teens. And with Telegram sexting rising, keeping an eye on your child is critical as your child can become a victim of Telegram sext groups.
Around 88% of 13- to 18-year-olds and 43% of 8 to 12-year-olds have smartphones. According to the research conducted in 2021, 34.8% of these kids and teens have received sext. At the same time, 19.3% had sent one.
But, before reaching out for the solution, it is essential to understand the background and how this free sexting through Telegram is affecting your child.
Part 1. What is Telegram Sexting
Telegram sexting is receiving or sending sexually explicit photos, messages, and video clips through the messaging app Telegram. For its encryption and privacy features, Telegram is famous for sexting, with many sexting Telegram groups available. However, a child entering the dangerous zone of sexting can bring harm to them.
Part 2. The Risks of Telegram Sexting to Kids
Telegram Sexting involves multiple risks for your kids. These risks include:
- Sexually explicit content
Regardless of Telegram’s popularity, it is not a kid-friendly site. Although some features are extraordinary, yet, it has a downside too. Imagine your kid accidentally stumbled upon content that’s sexually explicit, violent, and not recommended for his age. That would be horrifying, right? Since there’s no age verification for the app, anyone, including young children, can use it, which can lead to cyberbullying, sexual predation, and other online dangers.
- Interaction with strangers
Another scary feature is interaction with strangers. Telegram allows the user to connect with others nearby based on location. Your child might be making new friends. But, like in any neighborhood, not everyone has good intentions. Moreover, it has no parental controls, and your child can change privacy settings whenever they want.
- Blackmailing threats
With the increasing advantages of the latest technology, the threats have also increased. And with times like these, where you can generate nudes with AI, the risk of molesters getting your child’s nudes is at the peak. They may use them as leverage for blackmail, leading to financial and physical threats. They can harm you by blackmailing for physical relations or, in some cases, using you to carry out illegal activities.
Part 3. 5 Warning Signs Your Child Might Be Involved in Telegram Sexting
Whenever a child is up to something they know is not right, their behavior changes. You must notice these warning signs to ensure your child’s safety.
- Increased secrecy
The biggest warning signs to keep an eye on are overprotective. If your child is sexting on Telegram, they get extra cautious with their cell phone and try to hide their screen from public view. They even sleep with their phones under their pillows. Sometimes, you might find them leaving the room to talk or text. And while they are not around, they often try to hide their phone even while they sleep.
- Dropping grades
Another change you would feel is the lack of interest in their academics. As risky behaviors outweigh day-to-day responsibilities, they lose interest in their studies. That results in grades dropping.
- Changed friends
Sometimes, they even change their company since their new friends are also involved in similar activities to the ones they are involved in. If you notice an increase in flirty photos and strange language within your child’s phone or if they have friends who do, it could be a sign of involvement in Telegram sexting.
- Increased screen time
You might notice an increased screen time by your tween or teen. You will find them always messaging on their phones. Whether they are going to drink water in the kitchen or even the washroom, they take their phone along.
- Always in an angry or defensive mood
Another alarming sign is always in an aggressive mood. Whether your child feels that sexting is alright, yet they understand the risks involved, like threatening, revenge porn, bullying, a wrecked reputation, anxiety, and depression. Always staying in alert mode and trying to hide their photos and texts from getting exposed may leave some negativity in their personality, which they exhaust as anger or defensiveness.
Part 4. Best Way to Protect Your Child from Telegram Sexting-Using Parental Control App
To ensure your child doesn’t get harmed and end up in some dangerous situation, you need a solution for that. There is no better solution to monitor your child’s activity than parental control apps like Msafely.
4.1. What is Msafely
Msafely is the world's most secure phone monitoring solution for parents. The app makes it easier for you to monitor your kid's activities on their phones anytime, anywhere. It is used to help parents protect kids from online threats like free Telegram sexting and make sure they are always in safe places.
A professional spy app that is compatible with both Android and iPhone devices. You can easily monitor over 30 types of phone data, like SMS, location, contacts, browsing history, WhatsApp, and more. In terms of monitoring features, it is indeed an outstanding spy app than many others on the market.
4.2. Key features of Msafely
- Works in hidden mode: No app or icon appears on your kid's phone.
- Easy to use: Different connection methods to ensure successful connections.
- Exceptional monitoring features: Msafely helps parents to monitor SMS, location, installed apps, Telegram, Instagram, WhatsApp and more than 30 other apps on their children's mobile phones.
- Supports Android & iOS.
- Spy on phone activities remotely.
- See child's phone activities in real-time.
4.3. What phone activities can Msafely monitor
Msafely can remotely monitor over 30 types of mobile phone activity on your child's mobile phone, and below I will highlight a few of the monitoring features that many parents are more concerned about:
Msafely allows you to view all callers' names, numbers, duration of calls, and times. Not only this, you can also view all calls, missed calls, and incoming and outgoing calls. This feature helps you identify if there’s some increased activity on a specific number.
Through this feature, you can track all the sent, received, and even deleted messages through your phone. You can even check the sender’s name and number along with the time and date the message was sent or received.
This feature is helpful when your child is out with friends. By tracking the device's real-time location, you can ensure your child’s safety. Not only just location, you can even check the device's route history and access the date and time of the device's locations.
In recent times, WhatsApp has gained popularity, especially among young fellows. Despite Telegram sexting, your child can also be endangered by this platform. Track all WhatsApp chats, including private and group messages. Msafely allows you to view photos, videos, messages, and docs shared via WhatsApp. Not only this, but you can also monitor WhatsApp calls, contact lists, keystrokes, and locations. In short, you can check all WhatsApp activity without jailbreak.
This feature allows you to see all the photos captured on the monitored device, check all saved videos on the target phone, will enable you to track the time and date stamps of each picture and video, and download all photos & videos stored on the target device.
This is an extremely useful feature in Msafely. If you find someplace dangerous, you can set safe and unsafe zones. You can also track device movement, monitor how frequently they visit any particular place, and receive real-time notifications whenever the target leaves or enters the zone.
4.4. Steps to protect your kids from Telegram sexting
Msafely has made it easy to protect your kids from Telegram sexting. Compatible with both Android and iOS, Msaefly ensures your child's safety with just three simple steps.
Step 1. Register for a Msafely account using a valid email.
Step 2. Pick the type of device you want to connect to, whether iPhone or Android.
Step 3. Go to your Msafely Control Panel to start tracking the target device.
Part 5. What Should You Do If You Find out Your Child is Involved in Telegram Sexting
No matter if your child claims that Telegram sexting is ok or everybody is doing it, you are right to inquire. Yet, there are certain ways to react to this massive news instead of scolding and grounding them. The following are some ways to respond and solve the issue.
- Stay composed
The first and foremost important thing is to stay composed. Don’t start yelling or begin an argument with your child. Whatever you say, sometimes this Telegram sexting is a result of peer pressure. Girls try to prove their sincerity and loyalty to their boyfriends, while boys get bullied by their other friends if they don’t sext.
To understand your child’s feelings and what’s going on inside their head, you need to stay calm. Moreover, when children hit puberty, they go through different phases and are unable to comprehend their newly developed desires. So, instead of getting angry and ridiculing them, try to figure out the root cause and explain to them why it isn’t wise and how to avoid doing it in the future.
- Act quickly
Somehow, your child has started sexting and has joined multiple Telegram sexting groups. You have to immediately take the decision and remove all suggestive images from your child’s phone. You can show a little strictness for getting that media deleted from their and anyone else’s devices. Try to understand the problem and involve other people who can help in the situation.
Teach your child about the laws, sexting allegations and how gay sexting and bot sexting on Telegram can have profound consequences. If your child isn’t the only one among the friends group involved in Telegram sexting, you might need to talk to their parents as well. If a situation has gotten out of hand, involve the police and pursue legal action. And lastly, but most importantly, seek counselling if a problem causes anxiety or depression for your child.
- Be proactive
No matter how hard it is, always prepare your kids for sexting Telegram and other groups beforehand. This topic needs your concern. Start chatting with your kids at a young age about the importance of protecting their private information, images, and reputation online.
Get specific about what kind of content is okay and not okay to share. Have age-appropriate conversations on how to avoid the temptation of sexting and the possible consequences.
- Clarify the consequences
Work together to create ground rules for responsible phone use that include clear instructions on what to avoid. Be active in enforcing the consequences if used otherwise. If you say you will take away a phone for a week that isn’t used responsibly, be prepared to do that.
Part 6. FAQs about Telegram Sexting
Q1. What is Telegram used for?
Telegram is a secure messaging and audio calling cloud-based app that allows you to send messages, photos, videos, and files of any type to your contacts for free.
Q2. What is illegal content on Telegram?
Some Telegram groups are unsafe for the young fellows. These groups deal with multiple illegal activities, like harassment, cyberbullying, and violence. Engagement with such Telegram sexting and other groups can compromise their security.
Q3. Is Telegram safe for children?
Features like secret chats, self-destructing messages, searchable usernames, and unmoderated private groups make Telegram an unsafe choice for young users.
Q4. Is there any risk in Telegram?
Telegram is a popular messaging app that is widely recognized as a safe channel for online communications. For adults, it’s a popular app with several advantages.
Q5. Can parental control see Telegram messages?
Telegram has no parental controls, but additional softwares can make it easy to check. You can use any apps like Msafely, to keep an eye on your child’s Telegram activity.
Part 7. Conclusion
Parenting in an advanced digital era is a tough nut to crack. Considering all the ways children can get scammed and harassed, it is necessary to ensure their safety. Msafely is an extraordinary app and a rescuer for parents trying to track their kids’ activities. Whether you have iOS or Android, Msafely is compatible with both. With Msafely, you can easily track your child’s call logs, messages, WhatsApp, and location, which can ensure your child’s safety. After all, your child needs protection and care from you.
