Is Kik okay for young children?

No, Kik’s risks are pretty serious, even if you consider your child to be mature for their age. Kik doesn’t allow users younger than 13 to use the app — though there’s no age verification, so your kid can just lie about their age and create an account. Note that the Apple App Store rates Kik as suitable only for users aged 17+.

Does Kik have built-in parental controls?

Not really. The Kik app has only the most basic online safety features, such as blocking and reporting users, as well as reporting groups for abusive content. It also has a filter that reduces explicit content, but it doesn’t work very well. If you want your child to use Kik and be safe, I recommend getting a good premium parental control app to retain some level of control and make your child’s experience on Kik somewhat safer.

Can I see who my child is chatting with on Kik?

Yes, but only with a good parental control app . I recommend Bark — it reads all of your kid’s chats on Kik and alerts you when it detects inappropriate or dangerous content. The alert includes a snippet of the message your child sent or received in a private or group chat.

Is there inappropriate content on Kik?

Yes, and it’s easily accessible. The recommended live streams often feature suggestive or outright explicit thumbnails, and there are plenty of bots sending messages to random users with inappropriate profile pictures. Also, it’s very easy to find groups dedicated to sharing adult content. However, there are steps you can take to reduce the amount of adult content your child is exposed to on Kik, including removing live stream suggestions and a Safe Search setting that filters out some groups.

Articles by Toma Novakovic

Toma Novakovic

Toma Novakovic is a former writer at SafetyDetectives. Before joining, he worked as a freelance writer for various publications in the tech, language arts, and science fields. He has a broad array of interests and loves learning new things about the tech sector and the ever-growing field of cybersecurity and privacy. When he's not writing at work, he's likely writing fiction, reading up on obscure topics, or replaying some Final Fantasy video game.