Senator Questions App About Kids' Safety

Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee is asking tough questions about a messaging app called Kik. She says the app is not keeping children safe from dangerous adults who try to hurt them. Blackburn wrote a letter to the company that owns Kik on Friday. She wants them to explain why kids are still getting hurt on their app.

Blackburn's letter came after a research group released a scary report about Kik. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation found that bad adults use the app to find and hurt children. The report called Kik a 'predator's paradise,' which means it's an easy place for dangerous people to find kids. This is not the first time Kik has been in trouble for not protecting children.

The research group did a test to see how safe the app really is. They made a fake account pretending to be a 12-year-old child. Within just 12 seconds, strangers started sending inappropriate and harmful messages. This shows how quickly dangerous adults can find children on the app.

Kik says it only allows people who are 18 years old or older to use the app. However, the company doesn't check to make sure users are really adults. The app also lets people send messages to complete strangers, which makes it easier for bad adults to contact children. The safety filters that are supposed to block bad content don't work properly either.

Senator Blackburn gave the company one week to answer her questions. She wants to know how they check users' ages and what they do to keep children safe. She also asked how many times adults have tried to have inappropriate conversations with children on the app. Blackburn wants to know if Kik reports these problems to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Blackburn is known for fighting to keep children safe online. She helped write a law called the Kids Online Safety Act with another senator. The law passed in the Senate but hasn't become official yet because the House of Representatives has different ideas about it. She is also working with the White House to create new rules that would require apps to check users' ages.