| On 10 months ago

Twenty (Formerly Mappen): The Latest Social Media Craze Parents Need to Know About

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Recently, the famous Mappen app was rebranded as the Twenty app. The basic difference between the Mappen app and the Twenty app is that at the time it is only available in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Philadelphia but in future, it is expanding with new markets opening. This is a social media app that mainly focuses on location sharing. Users of this app share their location on the app and what they’re doing with their friends. This is done to get together in real life.

What Is The Twenty App?

The Twenty app is a social media network which mainly emphasize on location sharing. Users have to share their location and what they’re doing with their friends through this app. While setting up this app you asked to set a “home” location which must be your home address. After that, your friend’s list is made up of their phone’s contact list. The “friends nearby” feature let you know when you are having friends who are close by or on their way. Here are some other facts regarding this app:

  • The direct messaging feature of the app allows you to talk one-on-one or in groups with friends and later messages disappear after 24 hours.
  • Users can go “Automatic” and hide their location from everyone or from specific contacts for up to 8 hours but after that their location becomes visible again.
  • This app is safe for kids because kids have to manually add the people with whom they share their location. Though kids may start out only adding friends, people aren’t always who they say they are online.

What Should You Know about Mappen (Twenty App) ?

Often by using the Twenty app predators can take advantage of false identities. Once you are friends on Twenty, you can show other directions right to your front door, school, movie theatre, or bus stop. Apart from safety concerns, twenty app also have other potential dangers. As kids are able to see all of the friends and whether they’re hanging out or not. This feature increases the fear of missing out (FOMO), and for some kids. Once you put contacts in someone else’s account, there’s no telling what they will do with it. The purpose of the app is to share your location with friends 24/7 that is round the clock which is not safe for students. Here is a list of few more dangers that are associated with this app:

  • This app only shares your location with your phone book contact list. It will ask if you want to “follow” your contacts. And it will start sending spam to your friends via SMS to join the app without your knowledge.
  • When you install the app, it will ask you to open the device location, which will remain open even if you don’t use the app.
  • Once the account is activated, they cannot delete their account. The only way is to contact the app developer.
  • Users can send direct messages to each other or in groups. The message will disappear after 24 hours.
  • The app gives you a few hours of “Automatic” options. However, when you select this option, it will be penalized for not allowing you to post anything during this time. Again, after 8 hours, it will automatically open your location again. It will prompt you to “Always” allow Mappen to access your location.

Is Mappen (Twenty App) Safe for Your Kids?

There are many security and privacy issues with this app. The fact that it keeps sharing your children’s locations is worrying because it means the children are giving up on their privacy.

The app also collects personal information about your children. Once this information is shared, it will not be retrieved. It is not clear to whom they share your personal information for advertising purposes.

What Can You Do Protect Your Children from Mappen (Twenty App) ?

The features of Twenty app are not new but targeting that to kids. It looks a lot like the maps section of Snapchat but it even allows you to make phone calls over Mappen and leave no trace. This is free because it exists to sell your information which makes it more dangerous for children. You should look in the privacy policy and the app clearly state that the company that develops it will sell everything. That’s the reason you have to take the required steps to safeguard the children. Here are a few ways by which you can do:

  • Talk to your children about the dangers of location sharing apps and remove the app immediately.
  • Contact the developer of the app to disable your children’s accounts.
  • Encourage your children to make a real plan without using the app.
  • Use a parental control app like iKeyMonitor to monitor Mappen (Twenty App) .

iKeyMonitor Helps In Preventing The Dangers Of Mappen (Twenty App)

As already discussed, Twenty ap is a social media network that focuses on location sharing. Law enforcement officials are warning you regarding the dangers of this app because it specifically targets younger children. The best way for you to protect their students on social media is to have a discussion about the dangers of the app. But apart from that you must always make use of a tool like iKeyMonitor which enables you to check whether children are following all the set guidelines. Here are ways in which iKeyMonitor enables you to avoid the dangers of Twenty app:

  • It allows you to monitor chat messages on Twenty, so you will know if someone is plotting your children.
  • It takes screenshots at an interval, the disappeared messages can also be viewed through the screenshot.
  • It keeps track of all keystrokes typed on your children’s devices.
  • It’s feature of GPS tracking lets you know your children’s real-time location.
  • Geo-fencing feature enables you to find out whether your kids leave your defined area. You can set up Geo-fencing and get alerts by email.

Thus, if your children has Twenty app installed on their device then that is surely a matter of concern. But you have to make sure that you use an effective monitoring tool like iKeyMonitor and track the activities of your children to keep them safe online while using any app or social media accounts.

iKeyMonitor Team

iKeyMonitor Team is a team of parental control experts with over 16 years of experience in parental control apps and phone tracking tools. Started in 2009, iKeyMonitor is now the most powerful monitoring and control application for parents.

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