Parents questioning what kids see on popular app

The LiveMe app and social network has more than 50 million users, and at any time there could be 10,000 different live streams for people to watch.

What we saw when we downloaded the app ranged from the strange to the disturbing. It looks like any other simple video chat, but the longer you watch, the more you realize it isn't so innocent. Kids are watching uncensored livestreams and going live themselves in front of thousands.

Within a few minutes of browsing around, we saw an adult male smoking a hookah, three toddlers sitting on a bed, and a nearly naked woman using a propane tank to light a bong.

We saw a user commenting about a young girl's body.

"This is just a big accident waiting to happen," offered Melanie Hempe.

Hempe and Holley East are social media experts who run Families Managing Media. Their company educates parents about what their kids are doing online to help them understand the dangers of the digital age.

We showed them the LiveMe app, but they were already aware of it and said parents need to be too.

"Parents are in denial because they don't think their kids are doing this," said Hempe.

"There are new apps coming out every day, every week. You can restrict your child's phone today, and tomorrow there is going to be a new app they find out about at school," said East.

Hempe and East tell parents that if their kids have a smart phone, then they need to have full transparency. That means having all the passwords and being able to access the device whenever they please. They also say you can't assume the blockers you put on their phones will work.

"There is not one parental control that is 100-percent foolproof," said East.

"You need to see everything," said Hempe.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Live.me said the app is committed to building a safe and friendly live broadcasting community, and it uses artificial Intelligence to monitor broadcasts. It also has 100 paid moderators to keep an eye on feeds. But with 600,000 hours of live content being generated daily, it is hard to keep track of everything.

East and Hempe say they would recommend deleting the app from phones used by children, but to also be aware that another network might be popular tomorrow.

"They are popping up all the time. This is very common," said Hempe.

And, even though it isn't always comfortable, parents need to have serious conversations with their kids to make sure they are staying safe online.

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Cox Media Group