ANANDA Alert officer Annadjae Roberts has urged parents and guardians to get more in tune with various ways some children have found to disguise applications on their devices, hiding their real interactions with unscrupulous individuals in plain sight.

“We all know the popular social media platforms, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, but there are others that aren’t as popular so we have Kik, Tinder, Tumblr, MeetMe. And MeetMe is exactly how it sounds, it suggests that people who don’t know each other meet up, you can share your location, and it encourages you to meet in real life,” Roberts, who was a presenter during the latest in a series of anti-bullying workshops by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) recently, said.

“While you are checking the apps and the conversations, be mindful that there are other apps that can be used to hide these actual apps. So, for example, something will look like a calculator and even work like a calculator but it’s actually a vault where you can store another app,” Roberts shared.

“So, you check the WhatsApp and you say, ‘All is well; it’s good, the conversation is clean. But you know our phones now have dual sims so you can have two WhatsApps; there is another account on the phone but it’s hidden in another deceptive app so you just have to be mindful of all the little tips and tricks that are out there,” she told individuals at the forum.

Roberts, who was addressing the group about the dangers of bullying and encouraging parents to keep the channels of communication open so children will confide in them about challenges, said her office had come across situations where a child conversing in a hidden app with an outsider resulted in a missing child case.

“At my desk in the Ananda Alert unit I had a situation where a parent was doing their best, checking conversations, checking social media, and nothing seemed out of the norm. But another sibling helped the parent to check and find that there was a hidden WhatsApp in one of these apps and that is how we were able to get information that led to an investigation, and that child was safely recovered,” she said.

In urging parents to know the “tricks and tips” children might be using to hide their true tracks, Roberts said the language used is another red flag.

“Pay attention to the language as well. We know LOL [laugh out loud], we know BRB [be right back] but there are other things you might see as just a bunch of jumbled up letters and you don’t realise what it is or what the conversation is about,” she stated.

“There is another one – LMIRL – and that means ‘Let’s meet in real life.’ You might see it and think it is just a bunch of random letters but you just have to know or ask — ask other teens what does this mean because we don’t always have the information,” Roberts pointed out.

“So you might see a bunch of letters that means nothing but there is some context to it. You see someone constantly sending your child a knife emoji or a bomb emoji, why? Is a threat being made? So pay attention to the things you are seeing,” she added.

In September this year the CPFSA told the Jamaica Observer that between January 2009 and June this year a total 18,887 children who had been reported missing have returned home. Specifically for January to June this year, a total 506 children were reported missing of which 320 returned home. A total 186 children however remain missing but none have been confirmed dead. It further said it has flagged as “still missing” 3,745 children of the total 22,716 reported missing from 2009 to June this year. Of the children said to be still missing, 2,948 are females and 797 males. For the parents or guardians of 84 children who had been among the missing however, the door of hope has closed as they have been confirmed dead.