The Parents Guide to MXit is now available from today. This concise guide is made available at no cost to all concerned parents or educators, who may have sleepless nights about children using MXit, the popular chat application that enables communication on cell phones at the fraction of SMS costs.
Ramon Thomas, online behaviour expert at NETucation, one of South Africa’s leading online research organisations, produced this guide after a spate of negative publicity and shocking incident, since being interviewed about this topic on Cape Talk/702 in early September 2006.
“This guide explains MXit in plain and simple English for parents and teachers,” says Thomas. “Once you understand MXit it very important to note the impact on your relationship with your child, the possibility and probability of addiction and abuse.”
MXit Lifestyle (Pty) Ltd, the company who created the MXit application, states the current growth is about 10,000 new users per day. Latest stats indicate 385,000 users between 12-17 and 462,000 users between 18-25. After being released in late 2005, MXit has broken through the 2 million subscriber base in record time. And is the fastest growing cellphone application in South African history. As we approach the festive season when SMS volumes normally spike, MXit usage, and subscribers should continue to increase as rapid pace.
“Parent’s must realise this phenomenon is practically unstoppable,” says Dr Helgo Schomer, UCT academic and registered psychologist who runs the Institute of Behavioural Health in Cape Town. He further explains that in virtual environments like MXit, people have no responsibility to adhere to acceptable social etiquette. Rumours can be spread, people can create fake identities, and there is no retribution or consequences to face up to.
The most important aspects covered in the guide is this:
- How Cellphone/MXit impacts on family relationships
- Coping with Cellphone/MXit Addiction/Abuse
- Installing and using MXit on your phone
- Navigating the MXit environment
- Chat room lingo
Patrick Hoare, founder of Kids Online, says, “Parents should not take away their children’s cellphones because it may give rise to cellphones being used in secret.” Parents normally teach us not to talk to strangers, yet we do that online. Do not accept invitations to chat privately from strangers on MXit.
Its easy to get your copy of Parents Guide to MXit, just click here to download it right now. And spread the word by pointing people to this website.
Ramon Thomas, is available for public talks at schools, churches or non-profit organisations. Contact our office for all bookings.
Cant we establish some kind of group that deals with these issues?
I own a web forum as well as a wap chat site on mavchat.co.za and think that us people who gives these services need to take some kind of responsability for the services we provide. In my sites case is that we do have administrators and moderators who checks on the safety of our users as well as the site.
Members of such a group should show that they are members with an icon and/or text stating that it is a websafe site.
Hey George, I will be approaching a few groups that represent Internet and Mobile industries to gain their support this initiative. And you’re dead right we need to promote the online safety and websites need to opt-into a program where we can ensure notices and warnings are posted in the correct places before chat rooms and forums are accessed. So any owners of websites can start by placing a link to this website.
Ramon
Please mail me a copy of the mix-it doc as i seem to have probs getting it off ya site
I think this is all a money making business, like all businesses. The after effects of such a site wasn’t carefully thought of once it was launched. Now parents have to seek guidance to assist their kids from something that is so easily available, I think it’s unfair! The creators of this site should really have a reality check. It’s not only about money but to live a happy life would be appreciated. The country already have so many other issues such as drugs, gangsterism, prostitution, etc. however this will just increase all of these issues.
Hey Ramon,
Good to see someone creating a tool which parents can use to understand MXIT better. I’m puzzled though that you do not seem to have laid down any clear, basic DO’s and DON’T’s for online discourse, whether via MXIT or other forums. It may be 2nd nature to some of us who have been online for a number of years, but for those who have not, I’d suggest a section which gives them clear guidelines to give to their kids.
To Anwar:
My friend – telecoms is all about money, whether you are a mainstream telco or an alternative service provider – few of us are working our tails off for free! MXIT is no more “evil” or “good” than the Internet itself or and ISP. It is a communications channel. Educate yourself about it and learn to manage it and its impact on your life and the life of your loved ones.
My kids are 11 and 10 – they are among the few at their school of their age that as yet do not have cell phones. We have a spare phone they take with them when they need it. When they get their own phones, I’ll be sitting down with them and Ramon’s guide.
The 10 year old will have worked it all out in a tenth of the time I will – she’s like that!
To whom does one report the fact that your
13 year old daughter has got involved in a porno
chat room and has received the most gross pictures and has been convinced to send pictures of herself in the nude!!
Hi Elsabe’,
I’m assuming that you are referring to a chat room on MXIT? Bearing in mind that there are no “porn” chatrooms on MXIT per se, I can only imagine that a MXIT chatroom is being used by some users to share pornographic material.
I’m not connected to MXIT in any way other than knowing some of the guys there. I’ve just got off the phone to their BusDev manager – they are exploring a number of ways of making it easier for users and non-users (you?) to report abuse more easily. Right now there is a way via the “forum” on their web site, but I’ve just been there and it is not nice an simple. Yet. She suggests you send an email with details to info@mxit.co.za and start a conversation with them that way. Abuse@{insertISPnameHere}.co.za is usually the way to take these things up, so you may like to cc that address as well?
Bear in mind that they are bound the same rules w.r.t. privacy ISPs are – no personal info about customers can be revealed unless a court order is obtained, but they can monitor usage and block users who are abusing the system.
Good luck!
a VERY GOOD PROPOSITION. i AM AN EDUCATOR AND I HAVE SEEN THE MISUSE OF MIXITY. IT SHOULD BE BANNED.
CAN U HELP. I AHVE THE FOLLOWING ERROR PERPETUSLLY APPEARING ON MY SCREEN:
UR PROGRAM HAS COMMITED ANILLEGAL OPERATION AND WILL NOW CLOSE.
ANY IDEAS WILL BE APPRECIATED.
Hello,how do i get to hack in my child’s mxit system?
how do i get this on to my phone? need instructions please.
[quote]
ELSABE’ // Nov 7, 2006 at 8:21 am To whom does one report the fact that your
13 year old daughter has got involved in a porno
chat room and has received the most gross pictures and has been convinced to send pictures of herself in the nude!![/quote]
I can suggest you should contact the SAPS as it is child porn. If the person she sent the pics to is overseas it would be wise to also contact that specific countrys consolate here in South Africa.
Also can you email me the Chat site url as well as the her username and the username(s) of the person who sent and convinced her to send the pictures?
Much appreciated.
I can be contacted at via our contact page or by mailing webmaster@mavchat.co.za
For those of you who dont have a compatible phone (like me) or dont have time to play on your phone you can use mxit4pc. This was created by one of the MavChat Online Community members. You can find the instalation/download information here The file is compressed in RAR format to decompress it you need WinRar which can be downloaded
here. I hope this will be usefull for everyone.
I disagree with most of the things that you all are talking about. The reason I believe you are all against mxit is because you are wary of something you hardly know much about. Mxit leaves lots of safety tips on every issue that could arise. Even before entering a chatroom, they stress all kinds of safety tips. I advise that before making bad comments, gets all the facts straight. Mxit can’t be blamed for how one acts on mxit. Mxit has so many good elements. The only people who see the bad in mxit are the ones who don’t have an open mind and see the bad in everything.
Could I have some details regarding Ramon Thomas’ presentation to schools. How long is it and what aspects would he cover. Also what are costs involved?
Mrs C, You can find out more from here.
Thank you very much for your avaiblity to be a “David” enabling by every means and methods of educating our parents and youths alike of what this “Goliath” is doing. Keep up the good work, our prayers are for you and may the Lord continue to give you guidance.
Rev. Krish Kistensamy
Nazarene Community Fellowship Church of the Nazarene.
Just a note too anyone interested in the mxit4pc application just email me at webmaster@mavchat.co.za so I can mail you the full package to set this up.
Thanks to Ramon for asking me about the new version of MXIT that has been released. I havent been keeping up to date with MXIT as I never use it. I have placed a new tutorial on my site here.
How do I hack into my childs mxit from my cellphone. please mail me on ascharnick@gmail.com
hey guys , i am a criminologist , and think mxit is a fanastic form of cheap communication, and with new technology people and children will be exposed to this . It is our duty to inform and educate and guide our children to be safe in this ever changing society . however i do agree with some of the above comments that the owners should take some responsibilty that crime does happen on their business . it is like having a business and allowing crime to happen on it …. hmmmm
How do I hack into my chids mxit from my cellphone? Please mail me kdf@telkomsa.net
You take his phone and tell you want to check it for 10 mins. After that go into another room and log into his MXit. There is no pin or password once MXit is installed on your cellphone. What I mean is that you do not have to ask his PIN to get into his MXit from his phone. Just do it this way without going via the Moon. Parents need to be more honest, open and direct with their kids about the boundaries that are missing from cellphones and other technology, which YOU as the parent is paying for after.
So my advice to you in short is, be the god-damn parent in the house. Take the phone and check it because you paid for it. Don’t allow your child to behave like an adult. Legal adult status is 21 if I’m not mistaken. So keep them in check, and get their father’s more involved immediately.