MADISON, Wis. (RELEASE) — Do your children have apps on their phones that you don’t know anything about and they tell you that it’s no big deal? There’s now a way to find out more about those apps and to help your children stay away from online predators.

And it comes in the form of a podcast.

The Protect Kids Online Podcast, created by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, will allow parents to have a better feel for what their kids are doing on their phones.

Justin Patchin, a Criminal Justice professor at UW-Eau Claire that specializes in cybercrimes, says parents are the first line of defense for their kids online.

“Sometimes parents don’t know what their kids are doing online and the information in the podcast could be a good conversation starter used to approach these issues with their kids,” Patchin said.

In the biweekly podcast, educators inform listeners of apps that their children may be using that could be dangerous.

“They might hear something in the podcast about a site or an app they didn’t know about and talk about it with their kids,” Patchin said. “Do you know this app? Do you use this app?” Read more…