Photo, Social Media
Is BeReal Safe? A BeReal App Review for Parents
Overview
BeReal is a photo-sharing app that’s all about authenticity. Here’s how it works: Once a day, users get a time-sensitive notification. You then have two minutes to take a photo of what you’re doing — it will automatically create a collage of an image taken from both your front and back camera. The time you get this alert changes every day, so it’s random when you’ll need to be photo-ready. Once the time’s up, you’ll be able to see what all of your friends are currently doing and react with emojis and comments. But is the BeReal app safe? We’ve got everything you need to know.
Harmful Content 😲
When BeReal first came out, it was fairly stripped down in features, with only the once-a-day ability to post. Since then, they’ve added tons more features in an attempt to get users to stay on the app longer. Now, instead of just once a day, you can post five times in addition to your first post (as long as it was posted within the two-minute time frame). BeReal has made it fairly obvious that they’re pulling inspiration from other popular apps that already have a proven formula to keep kids scrolling, such as Snapchat and Instagram.
Here are some of the features BeReal has added:
- Streaks to keep count of how many days in a row you post a BeReal.
- Paid ads placed intermittently throughout the Friends feed.
- Private group chats.
Inappropriate content
Whenever you give people access to a camera and the ability to publish photos, the chances of inappropriate content appearing are near inevitable. BeReal states that it’s for ages 13 and above, but many adults use the platform, which means that photos could include sexual content, drugs/alcohol, violence, and more. Another feature to note is that users can only delete one of their old photos per day. This means that potentially problematic photos that were posted in a moment of poor judgment could be up for longer than is prudent.
Distraction
It’s completely random when users get the time-sensitive notification that it’s photo-sharing time. For some kids, this could result in dropping everything to search for something cool to post. It’s only two minutes, but this may interfere with school work, walking safely across the street, or even just paying attention to a conversation.
Predation 🚨
BeReal used to give users access to a public feed where you could see posts from any random BeReal user on the app. They’ve since updated it to a “Friends of Friends” feed, where you just see the posts of people you have a mutual friend with. While this is slightly better than a worldwide public feed, it still opens the door for your child to be connected with a stranger on the app.
Another feature that BeReal has added since its launch is private messaging. And more recently, they’ve made this feature more prominent on the home screen so that users can’t miss it. So not only could your child encounter a stranger through the app, but they can now have private, unsupervised conversations without moving to a different platform. On top of that, messages in these private chats can be deleted, so kids could erase the conversation before you get a chance to see it.
Positive Value 💙
The whole point of BeReal is to share what you’re actually doing — not a painstakingly curated photo of tacos or a group photo of friends smiling but who are actually all mad at each other.
The upside of this is that you only see real, everyday activities, and it can be a refreshing glimpse into the behind-the-scenes activities of your loved ones. The downside? It can be kind of boring sometimes. Blurry photos of cereal. Out-of-focus selfies in a dark room. A zoomed-in picture of a bug on the floor. When you only have two minutes, it’s not always a masterpiece of photography that’s created — and that’s the whole point. Think of BeReal like a complete reaction to — and rejection of — more stylized social media platforms.
Privacy 🔒
When you go to post your daily photo, it automatically defaults to geotagging your location. This means that other users could see potentially identifying clues to where you’re currently at. Coupled with the “Friends of Friends” feed where a stranger could be privy to your child’s location, this could spell trouble. Fortunately, this feature can be turned off so that location doesn’t appear next to posts.
Parental Controls ✅
You can turn off the geotagging feature, but that’s about it when it comes to parental controls. And even this isn’t passcode protected, so for all intents and purposes, BeReal has no parental controls.
So, should my kid download it?
Probably not until they’re 16. The BeReal app is in the same vein as Instagram and contains many of the same dangers — there’s just less opportunity to post photos because of the time-sensitive nature of the app.
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