Top Ten Apps Every Parent Should Know About (2025 edition)
From Kik to Replika, Discord to Tellonym
Every year, a new wave of apps, games, and platforms takes hold of children’s attention. Some are harmless fun, many come with hidden risks. In 2025 the online landscape for children looks very different than even two or three years ago: the rise of AI systems for content generation and moderation, increasing monetisation, changing roles for developers/influencers, deepfake technology, addictive infinite content and children given access to the internet at even younger ages.
Here’s our rundown of the 10 apps every parent should know about right now, what they do, whether they have any benefits at all, and the potential risks to watch out for.
1. Roblox
Well-known but underestimated, Roblox is still one of the most popular online gaming platforms. Children create avatars, explore games made by other users, and chat. Read our ‘What is Roblox 101?’ article below.
Benefits: Creativity, friends, endless mini-games.
Risks: In-app purchases, adverts and scams; exposure to strangers; age inappropriate content.
2. Kik Messenger
Kik is a smartphone instant messenger app, with an emphasis on anonymity. It contains an internal browser to other applications, including dating, streaming and group chats. The Play Store and other app stores list this as an 17/18+ app and the company has faced a number of criticisms over the years due to poor moderation and child safety controls, and as such has a reputation as being highly unsuitable for children.
Benefits: Hard to think of any as a parent
Risks: The app encourages and makes it easy for users to meet and contact anonymous strangers; internal company brand chatbots; few parental safety features; sexually explicit livestreams
3. Twitch
Twitch is the king of live-streaming platforms. Users can find just about any genre of content - from gaming to sports to yoga and meditation. Twitch streamers can create huge fan bases and the company has struggled over the years to walk the line between succesful moderation and popularity. As with many of these platforms the possibility of children chatting with strangers exists and as with all user-generated content creation the possibility of watching inappropriate content is always there.
Benefits: Twitch offers many creative, fun and educational streams; dedicated fan bases akin to bands generate a sense of community and belonging
Risks: Endless content; hidden mature or inappropriate content; creators pushing the censorship limits on sexually suggestive, violent, political or other material; embedded adverts or creators pushing branded products
4. Discord
Originally a gaming chat app, now a hub for communities of all kinds. The platform is built on ‘servers’ with chat rooms, voice/video chat features, integrated games and developer options.
Benefits: Private servers with friends, voice + video chat; supportive of hobbies, interests, art, health and other communities
Risks: Direct messages from strangers; exposure to grooming or harmful content.
5. Hoop
Hoop isn’t an app on its own, but rather an ‘add-on’ for Snapchat. It’s designed to help users connect with ‘new friends’ or strangers and includes an integrated currency/points system called diamonds. Users earn diamonds through screen time, watching adverts and other activities. Hoop has been described as ‘Tinder for teens’ or ‘Tinder for Snapchat’, due to its similarity with matching and swiping on profiles.
Benefits: older teens may find it a relatively stress-free way to meet new people
Risks: teenagers can easily end up releasing personal details including their location to strangers; easy for predators to talk to, groom and meet underage users; encourages online ‘hook-up’ mentality to young teens.
6. Yubo
Yubo is another social media platform aimed at connecting people and facilitating online friendships. Most users are aged between 16-25 with a majority over age 18. Yubo provides spaces for livestream chats between friends. Overall the app probably has the most comprehensive safety features of any other on this list, including age verification at sign-up and elsewhere, gated communities based on age, strong user controls over blocks, muted words and AI blurring. Yubo also employs moderators who work with AI to filter out inappropriate content.
Benefits: Strong safety features; no followers or likes; genuine commitment to creating relaxed hangout spaces
Risks: always possible for underage teens and predators to bypass the safety features and interact; uses ‘Tinder-esque’ swipe to interact with new profiles
7. Tellonym
Like other apps such as Whisper, Tellonym is aimed at posing questions and answers in a completely anonymous environment. Users can be both registered and unregistered, posing possible safety threats to children and teenagers.
Benefits: asking questions without fear of judgement and reprisals can be liberating; users can get problems off their chests
Risks: bullying and inappropriate content can thrive; younger or vulnerable users may be targeted
8. Free Games
Google Play and the Apple store offer endless low quality, addictive and risky free games aimed at children. Often rehashes of simple engines such as endless running, swallowing things, collecting money or tokens, shooting hordes or fake IP characters like Mario and Sonic - these games are riddled with pop-up adverts, click-through links and data harvesting capabilities.
Benefits: Quick, funny entertainment once in a while
Risks: pop-up ads can be disturbing and inappropriate; app may be collecting personal data; closing ads usually results in clicking a link inadvertantly
9. AI Chat Apps: Character.ai, Replika
These exploded in the last year. Kids “chat” with AI bots that role-play or answer questions.
Benefits: Novelty, entertainment, anxious or awkward teenagers can ‘practice’ conversations
Risks: Unpredictable output, adult/sexual roleplay possible even when accounts are marked ‘under 18’; children/teens forming unhealthy dependence on AI chatbots which never challenge them
10. Random Pair Live Chat Apps: OmeTV, Omegle variants, Chatroulette
This genre of app carries huge inherent risks for children and teenagers. Most are variants of live chats between two random users anywhere in the world, matched in a roulette style ‘spin’ or other mechanism. Depending on the app there may be little to no age verification, safety features or content moderation, exposing young users to predatory adults or other disturbing content.
Benefits: Hard to see any
Risks: app dependent but risks of children matching with sexual predators; exposure to violent, graphic or self-harm content; harrasment or bullying; grooming and off-platform interactions
What Parents Can Do
Stay curious yourself: ask your child what apps they’re using and why.
Try the apps out: download them and see what the experience feels like, what risks might there be?
Use parental controls: but don’t rely on them alone.
Keep the conversation open: children are more likely to tell you if something goes wrong if they feel safe.
This is part of our DigiShield Kids Parent Toolkit, helping families build confidence online. Share this post with another parent, and subscribe for our weekly deep-dives into the apps, games, and trends shaping your child’s digital world.