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@ Defend All Kids
2025-02-08 23:44:56
One way parents can protect their children in cyberspace is by knowing what cyberspaces your children like to engage with. Today, we'll explore 4 apps that the DOJ has found criminals on.
## **Here are the apps**
1. Cash App
2. Valorant
3. Discord
4. Telegram
## **Background on the Data**
At Defend All Kids, our mission is to **protect children in cyberspace.** But in order to do so, we must ask an important question:
*What digital spaces do children frequently visit?*
In order to find answers to this question, we looked at the [Department of Justice Press Releases page](https://www.justice.gov/news/press-releases), and scraped all of the 676 press releases having anything to do with child abuse. The 4 applications listed above were common apps that we found. Now, we'll go one by one.
## **Cash App: 2 Press Releases**
This app was mentioned twice in the DOJ press releases, and both times were pertaining to the same criminal. In this case, the criminal used Cash App to pay young boys bribes to engage in sexually explicit activities. The link to Cash App is [here](https://cash.app/)
## **Valorant: 2 Press Releases**
Valorant is an online first-person shooter game. A predator used this platform to talk to young boys and convince them to do sexual favors for them. The link to Valorant is [here](https://playvalorant.com/en-us/).
## **Discord: 3 Press Releases**
Discord is a group messanging platform where people of similar interests can join and chat. One of the most common use cases for Discord is gaming communities. A predator used a gaming community discord to lure boys to engage in sexually explicit activities. The Link to Discord is [here](https://discord.com/).
## **Telegram: 5 Press Releases**
Telegram is an instant messaging service that many people use to send anonymous messages. In some of the cases the DOJ reported, predators were using the platform to lure in children and to force them to engage in sexually explicit activities. The link to Telegram is [here](https://telegram.org/).
## **Defend All Kids Recommendation:**
As you can see from the above applications, the main way predators can get to your children is from one thing:
***Access to software that let strangers talk to each other.***
We recommend that you talk to your child and see if he/she have any of these apps, and if they do, talk to them about their online behavior.